Audrey MacLean ’27 wins NCAA DIII cross country championship

In approximately 50 seconds, you could circle E Lot and find that no parking spots remain, or watch your bagel burn as you send it through the Proc toaster a second time when you knew you shouldn’t have, or ride the Ross elevator in claustrophobic and quiet silence from the first to sixth floor. 

Approximately 50 seconds was also the gap between Audrey MacLean ’27 and the second place finisher at the NCAA DIII Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Nov. 22. With her dominant victory, MacLean became only the second runner in program history to claim the individual NCAA title, the first coming over 39 years ago. MacLean is also now Middlebury’s fourth three-time All-American, and on Tuesday this week, was crowned the USTFCCCA NCAA DIII National Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year.

During the nationals race on Saturday, many runners hammered the typical, ambitious first splits of a cross country championship. MacLean sat in second by three seconds after the first kilometer, surrounded by multiple MIT runners and this year’s other top DIII competitors. However, the race was always going to become a question of Middlebury’s MacLean or RPI’s Jules Bleskoski ’27. As the first- and second-ranked runners respectively, it was only a matter of kilometers before the two separated from the pack and fought for the title head-to-head.

There was not much of a fight. MacLean had already faced Bleskoski in the regional championship meet the week prior, running a tactical race and comfortably surging past the RPI front-runner in the final 400 meters. At the national championship, with a more complete read on her opponent, MacLean was able to confidently take and retain the lead. 

In the second kilometer, Bleskoski sat right behind MacLean as they began to drop the rest of the field. Then, after a brutally quick third kilometer, MacLean separated herself at the front by over 10 seconds. The gap only widened throughout the rest of the race, growing to 48.2 seconds at the finish. By the time the fifth place runner crossed the line, MacLean had already finished over one minute prior. 

MacLean ran a personal best with a final time of 20:16.8. The result is also the sixth-fastest NCAA DIII national championship 6k time in history. In addition to her regional and national titles, MacLean won the NESCAC title for a second consecutive time and claimed first at the Connecticut College and Hoffmann invitational meets in her historic season with the Panthers.