COLUMBIA, Mo. — Utah Valley's Morgan Nokes and Sila Kiplagat will look to cement their places in the history books on Saturday as they race in the NCAA Championships at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Mo.
Nokes will run first in the women's 6k race, which is set to begin at 8:20 a.m. MT. Kiplagat will then run in the men's 10k race at 9:10. The meet will be streamed live on ESPNU with coverage starting at 8 a.m. MT.
LAST TIME OUT
In last Friday's Mountain Regionals, Kiplagat and Nokes became the first Wolverine male/female duo to qualify for Nationals out of a regional and second overall, joining Britain Reynolds and Maddie Bench Empey, who qualified via WAC Championship placement during the COVID Spring 2021 season. It is also the second time Utah Valley was represented on the All-Region teams on both sides, following Mo Guled and Caila Odekirk's top-25 placements in 2024.
Kiplagat answered the bell and then some in his first collegiate regional last Friday in Salt Lake. The freshman from Iten, Kenya was among the leaders from wire to wire, peaking as high as 10th midway through the race before ending in 14th. Kiplagat's 14th-place finish is the second-best at a regional by a male in program history behind only Josh McCabe's 11th-place run in 2012.
Nokes continued her historic 2025 season by placing seventh in Salt Lake, the second-best finish by any Wolverine runner at a regional race, behind only Everlyn Kemboi's championship run in 2022. Nokes has a women's team-record five individual race wins to her name this season, and is doing this all just eight months postpartum. Nokes gave birth to her son, Theo, back in March, and her husband, Joey, was a national champion and All-American with the BYU men's cross country team in 2024. Nokes' individual wins came at the UVU Invitational, Beehive Invitational, Color Country Invitational, Princeton Fall Classic, and the WAC Championships.
From KSL.com: Utah runner named WAC Athlete of the Week again, while balancing school and motherhood
Kiplagat and Nokes will be looking to join Kemboi as the only All-Americans in cross country program history. Between the cross country and track and field programs, Utah Valley has produced 15 All-Americans, 12 of which have come in the last three years.
Following Saturday's race, the team's attention will quickly shift to the indoor track and field season, which will begin on Dec. 10 at the BYU December Invitational. More details about the meet schedule and start times will come at a later date.
