VILLANOVA, Pa.—All season long, the Villanova women's cross country team has demonstrated its growth with each successive meet. The reward for its progress throughout the year came on Saturday evening when the Wildcats were revealed as an at-large selection to the NCAA Championships during a live online selection show. This will be the 33^rd team appearance at the cross country national championships for Villanova and the first since 2021.
 
The 2025 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships take place at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Mo., on November 22. The women's championship race is slated for 9:20 a.m. Central time (10:20 a.m. Eastern) and will be broadcast live on ESPNU. The men's championship race follows at 10:10 a.m. Central time and features a pair of Wildcats who were announced as individual qualifiers during Saturday evening's selection show.
 
Villanova came in fourth at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on Friday afternoon and had accumulated enough points over the course of a strong 2025 campaign to earn an at-large selection to the NCAA Championships. This is the 19^th time that head coach Gina Procaccio has led her team to the national meet in cross country. The program's 33 appearances all-time at the NCAA Championships make the Wildcats one of just 11 Division I women's teams with that many appearances. No other team has come close to approaching Villanova's nine all-time national championships.
 
This year's success for the Wildcats began with finishing first or second in the team standings at all five meets the team competed in during the regular season. The stretch included wins at the Temple Invitational, the Main Line Invitational and the Paul Short Run ahead of a runner-up finish at the Pre-NCAA Invitational on the championship course in Missouri on October 17. Villanova continued its momentum into the start of postseason competition and was the runner-up at the BIG EAST Championships on October 31.
 
Along the way, the Wildcats surged as high as No. 14 in the national rankings released by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Villanova was ranked No. 19 in the most recent national polls before NCAA regional competition.
 
The team's top seven has been solidified with a mix of emerging veterans and collegiate newcomers. Junior Tilly O'Connor (Spring Lake, N.J.) has been the Wildcats top finisher in each of her last three starts and has run four consecutive races below 20 minutes at the standard 6,000 meter cross country distance. She earned first team All-BIG EAST honors and Mid-Atlantic All-Region accolades, each of which were the first such honors of her collegiate career.
 
Graduate students Nikki Vanasse (Martinsville, N.J.) and Margaret Carroll (Mount Wolf, Pa.), along with senior Amelia Arrieta (Kansas City, Mo.), joined O'Connor as first team All-BIG EAST as well as all-region honorees. This year is the first time since 2018 that Villanova has had four finishers in the top 10 at the BIG EAST Championships as well as four Mid-Atlantic All-Region performers.
 
The top seven for the Wildcats also includes sophomore Rosie Shay (Middletown, N.J.) along with the freshman duo of Zoe Mosher (Pleasantville, N.S.) and Sophia McInnes (Bayport, N.Y.). Throughout the regular season and at the BIG EAST Championships, freshman Maeve Smith (Ocean City, N.J.), freshman Cecilia Montagnese (Leetsdale, Pa.) and senior Kinsey Pogue (Danville, Calif.) were regulars in the team lineup.