Creighton University Women's Cross Country

Chris Gannon begins his eighth season as head coach of Creighton's cross country programs in 2025-26. Creighton has made huge strides in Gannon's first seven campaigns, as he helped the Bluejay women to a seventh-place finish in the rugged BIG EAST in both 2019 and 2020, a sixth-place men's finish at the 2022 BIG EAST Championships and a program-best fifth-place showing in 2023. CU was ranked as the fifth-most improved men's program in the country by The Wood Report in 2019. CU's 2024-25 campaign was one of its most successful yet. Creighton's men won both home cross country races, with Evan Kraus winning the Platte River Rumble Collegiate race. Marcos Gonzalez established the CU record in the 8K (24:28.1), while Evan Kraus smashed the 10K program-best with a time of 30:56.15 at the NCAA Regionals. The CU women also won the Platte River Rumble Collegiate team title. The Bluejays competed at the BIG EAST Indoor Track Championships for the first time, and its men's 4x800 relay earned a runner-up finish at the BIG EAST Outdoor Championships. Javelin thrower Jacob Ludwick also transferred into the program, earning All-BIG EAST plaudits and qualifying for the NCAA First Round in outdoor track, where he placed 38th. The spring of 2024 also saw Creighton compete at the BIG EAST Outdoor Track Championships for the first time. Ryan Montera was CU's first male to ever compete in the BIG EAST Track Championships, smashing the school record in the 10K by 25 seconds. Marcos Gonzalez place

Former Oklahoma State All-American Matthew Fayers enters his eighth year at Creighton in 2025-26, and fifth as an assistant coach. Originally hired in July of 2018 as a graduate assistant, he was elevated to his current role as full-time assistant coach in December of 2021. Fayers has played an integral part in the success of the CU Cross Country and Track teams since his arrival, during which time the Bluejays have set 48 school-records and had 400+ performances to land on an all-time best list. In 2022-23 Creighton co-hosted its first big home meet in nearly a decade when it hosted the Platte River Rumble. The team also owned the second-best men's cross country GPA (3.77) in the country and 11th-best women's GPA (3.81). That made CU the only school in the country with both teams in the top-11, as well as the only school with both teams at 3.75 or better. In the classroom, the Bluejays has five men and five women named Academic All-District by the College Sports Communicators, both of which were program-bests. Boston Small earned the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and was one of three male finalists for the prestigious Walter Byers Scholarship. CU also made large gains on the course. Marcos Gonazlez set program records in both the 8K and 10K, with his 8K mark later broken by teammate Tommy Ward. Ward made history himself in the spring of 2023 when he qualified for the NCAA Regionals in the 800 meters, the program's first postseason qualifier in track. The CU men placed sixth