Lady Flames repeat as CUSA Cross Country champions
November 3, 2025 : By Liberty Athletics
Liberty Unversity’s Allie Zealand picked a good time for her first collegiate cross country individual victory. Her women’s 6K title led the Lady Flames to their second straight team championship, Saturday at the 2025 CUSA Cross Country Championships. Meanwhile, the Liberty men’s squad took second place at John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Ala.
Zealand covered the 6K course in 19:53.0, winning by nearly 30 seconds. The sophomore was the first of eight Lady Flames to cross the finish line among the top 21 finishers as Liberty posted a dominating 64-point victory (40 to 104) over runner-up New Mexico State.
The Lady Flames recorded the second largest margin of victory in meet history, trailing only their own 66-point triumph from 2024. Liberty has claimed back-to-back women’s cross country conference titles for the first time since spring 2021 and fall 2021 in the ASUN. The Lady Flames also became the first CUSA women’s squad to successfully defend their crown since Middle Tennessee won three in a row between 2019-21.
Defending CUSA men’s champion Liberty finished with 55 points on Saturday, putting the Flames 18 tallies behind Middle Tennessee for the title. Andrew Schultz (sixth place) paced four Flames inside the top 11 as Liberty posted its 23rd straight top-two finish in men’s cross country spanning three leagues (Big South, ASUN and CUSA).
Eight of Liberty’s 10 women’s competitors earned All-CUSA honors, including first team honorees Zealand (first place), Jessica Palisca (fourth), and Katrina Schlenker (fifth), second team performer Rachel Hill (14th) and the third team quartet of Ryann Aycock (16th), Katie Sigerud (17th), Kate Loescher (18th) and Mackenzie Babcock (21st).
Five Flames took home All-CUSA awards in the men’s race, including first teamers Schultz (sixth place) and Nicholas Kiprotich (seventh), second team honorees Edwin Kiprop (10th) and Ethan Pedersen (11th) and third team performer Tristian Merchant (21st).
Read the complete story on the Liberty Athletics website.
