Missouri will host the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships in 2025, the NCAA announced Wednesday.
It will be the first time a DI NCAA championship event has been held in Columbia. The Division II Swimming and Diving Championships were held at the Mizzou Aquatic Center in 2008.
“We are thrilled to be hosting the NCAA Cross Country Championships here in Columbia at Gans Creek in 2025,” Missouri cross country coach Marc Burns said in a news release. “We appreciate the confidence the NCAA has in us to host this great championship event.”
The races will take place at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course that was unveiled in September 2019 following a collaboration between Mizzou Athletics and the Columbia Parks and Recreation Deparment. Only two collegiate events have taken place on the course since its dedication, but it is also used by local high school teams and is open to the public.
The spectator-friendly course was designed with hosting championships in mind and features a permanent finish line structure as well as indoor restrooms and an outdoor shelter.
“When we came together with the City to build Gans Creek, our vision was to host the NCAA Championships as well as other events of this stature, and we are thrilled that it has happened so quickly,” MU athletic director Jim Sterk said in the release. “We enjoy a great relationship with the city, and look forward to working with it to bring more events like this to Columbia for our community.”
Gans Creek had previously been selected as the site for the 2021 Southeastern Conference cross country championships, the first cross country conference title event Missouri will host since joining the SEC in 2012.
However, the cross country meet isn’t the only future event Missouri will host. The 2024 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships were announced Wednesday to be held March 21-23, 2024, at the T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City, making it the 11th time MU has been selected to host the event.
This is in addition to Missouri hosting the 2021 NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis, scheduled to be held March 18-20 at the Enterprise Center.
“The last time our entire staff was in Kansas City, we met with the people of the Kanas City Sports Commission, and it was great to see the facility and the eagerness they had to host the event,” Missouri wrestling coach Brian Smith said in a release. “Then, after our tour, we walked out of the T-Mobile Center and right there is Power & Light. It’s going to be an awesome setting for wrestling fans.”
NCAA championship host sites are determined by NCAA sport committees following an extensive bidding process and then approved by divisional competition oversight and championship committees.
Other non-MU-related sites in Missouri for future NCAA championships were also released Wednesday.
The St. Louis area will host five NCAA championship events over four years from the 2022-23 to 2025-26 seasons. The events will be held at various locations in and around the city.
- The 2023 NCAA Division II Women’s Golf Championship will be held at Fox Run Golf Club in Eureka in partnership with the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
- A 2024 NCAA Division I men’s hockey regional will be held at Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights in partnership with Lindenwood University.
The 2024 Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships will be held at Dwight Davis Memorial Tennis Center in partnership with Washington University in St. Louis.
- The 2025 Division I Men’s Hockey Championship will be held at the Enterprise Center in partnership with the University of Vermont.
- Several first- and second-round games in the 2026 Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament will be held at the Enterprise Center in partnership with the Missouri Valley Conference.
Kansas City will host three NCAA championship events over four years, from the 2022-23 to 2025-26 seasons. All the events will be held at the T-Mobile Center.
A 2023 NCAA Division I men’s basketball regional will be held March 23-26 in partnership with the Big 12.
- The 2025 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship will be held Dec. 18-20 in partnership with the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
