EARLYSVILLE, Va.—The pinnacle of the collegiate cross country season is on Saturday morning when Villanova competes in the 2023 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships at Panorama Farms. On the men's side, the Wildcats earned a team berth to the national meet for the second straight year and the 37^th time in program history. Two individuals on the women's side – juniors Sadie Sigfstead (Edmonton, Alta.) and Emma McGill (Lebanon, N.J.) – qualified for the NCAA Championships based on their finishes at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional last week.
 
Saturday's national championships will be broadcast live on ESPNU as part of two-and-a-half hours of uninterrupted coverage. The broadcast will begin with a preview show at 9:30 a.m., followed by commercial-free coverage of the women's 6,000 meter race at 10:20 a.m. and the men's 10,000 meter race at 11:10 a.m. There will also be an awards ceremony beginning at 12 p.m. which can be seen exclusively on ESPN3 with the ESPN mobile app. Villanova alum and 1998 individual NCAA cross country champion Carrie Tollefson will be providing analysis of the races along with Kyle Merber; ESPN's John Anderson will handle play-by-play coverage.
 
Villanova had a total of eight athletes earn Mid-Atlantic All-Region honors at last week's NCAA regional championships, led by Sigfstead and men's senior Liam Murphy (Millstone, N.J.) who combined to sweep the individual titles at the meet. Murphy won the men's 10K race in 29:05.5 and combined with fifth year Haftu Strintzos (Melbourne, Australia) for a 1-2 finish. All five of the Wildcats scoring runners placed in the top 25 to garner all-region accolades. Murphy and Strintzos were followed by the trio of fifth year Ryan Kredell (Geneva, Ill.), sixth year Henry Myers (Portland, Ore.) and junior Devon Comber (Ambler, Pa.).
 
This is the fifth time in the last six years that the Villanova men have earned a team berth to the NCAA Championships. Last season the Wildcats placed 19^th to earn their highest national finish in eight years. Villanova has once again been among the top teams in the country this year and comes into the NCAA Championships after second place team finishes at the BIG EAST Championships and the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional.
 
On the women's side, Sigfstead had a blistering time of 19:35.5 in last week's women's 6K race. It is the second-fastest time in school history for that length cross country race and makes her the Wildcats fourth different runner in the last seven seasons to win the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional title. Sigfstead and McGill placed first and fourth, respectively, last week to earn individual qualifying berths to the national championships. Sigfstead competed at the NCAA Championships in 2021 and tallied a respectable 93^rd place overall finish as a true freshman.
 
McGill competed in two cross country races last season and has stood out this year while tallying strong finishes in each of her starts. She came in fifth at the BIG EAST Championships last month to earn first team All-BIG EAST honors and most recently added her first career Mid-Atlantic All-Region performance a week ago.