Allie Zealand prepares for NCAA Cross Country Championships debut

Liberty University’s Allie Zealand will wrap up her sophomore season by making her first trip to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. The meet will take place on Saturday at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Mo.

Zealand shattered her own Liberty women’s 6K record at the NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships in Earlysville, Va., with a time of 19:14.3. That was good for fifth place in the Southeast Region and punched her ticket to Columbia. She crossed the finish line one place in front of ACC champion Angelina Napoleon (NC State), becoming the third-highest finisher at this meet in program history. Ednah Kurgat was the Southeast Region runner-up in 2015 and Calli Doan took fourth place in 2021. Zealand also earned all-region honors for the second year in a row after previously taking 20th in the Southeast Region as a freshman in 2024.

Slated for 10:20 a.m. EST, the women’s 6K will be the first of Saturday’s two races. The men’s 10K will follow at 11:10 a.m. Eastern.

Zealand gives Liberty an individual qualifier to the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships for the third year in a row. Nicholas Kiprotich placed 113th in the men’s 10K in Earlysville, Va. in 2023 and Adelyn Fairley was 77th in the women’s 6K in Madison, Wis. in 2024. She is the sixth Lady Flame ever to reach the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships as an individual and the first to get there during her sophomore season. Liberty’s first NCAA Division I women’s cross country national qualifier was her mother and coach, Heather (Sagan) Zealand, in 2000 and 2001.

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