A considerable number of former high-school cross-country runners from throughout the metro area will be competing for multiple local college teams during the upcoming men’s and women’s fall season.
One of those collegiate squads with the most local runners is the Division II Bowie State University program in Maryland. There are a total of eight local runners for the Bulldogs, equally divided between men and women.
The women runners are Nataya Walker from Maryland’s Bowie High School, Kaniyah Ervin from Reservoir High in Laurel, Adonna Jackson from Frederick Douglas High in Upper Marlboro and Ugonna Ibegwam from Laurel High.
The local men for Bowie State are David Gooding from Gwynn Park High in Waldorf, Mujaahid Jones from Frederick Douglas, D.C. resident Markell Yarborough from KIPP College Preparatory and Kenneth McLeigh from Parkdale High in Lanham.
Division I American University has three area runners on the men’s program, and one on the women’s team in Emma Colavito from Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville. She was a top finisher for American in postseason meets last fall.
One runner for the men is Emmett Engelhardt, a graduate of Arlington’s Washington-Liberty High. The rising sophomore was a top runner for American as a freshman during the 2025 season, placing in the postseason’s NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region championship meet.
Engelhardt was a top finisher in postseason district, region and state meets during his senior season at W-L and won the Arlington County meet.
Two other local runners for the American men are Hyattsville resident Daden Grogan from DeMatha High and Chantilly resident Brandon Morrow from St. Paul VI Catholic High.
The Howard University men have DeMatha graduate Sayid Shakur of Fort Washington and Bowie’s Paul Robinson, a grad of St. John’s College High.
The Howard women have Kendall Robinson of St. John’s College High and Magruder High graduate Sarah Seam of Gaithersburg.
There is no men’s cross-country team at the University of Maryland, but the women have local runners Katie Dutko from Rockville’s Walter Johnson High, Evan Rogers of Odenton’s Elizabeth Seton’s High and Kiki Van Der Weide from Vienna’s Madison High.
At Madison, Van Der Weide was a top postseason finisher throughout her high-school cross-country career.
The Catholic University men have Tim Sweeney from Loudoun Valley High in Purcellville.
Another Washington-Liberty graduate, Henry Brys, runs for Arlington’s Marymount University men’s team.
Running for the Marymount women are Elizabeth DellaCorte from Briar Woods High in Ashburn and Stafford’s Maria Pullen of Paul VI.
In Fredericksburg, a bit south of the D.C. area, the University of Mary Washington have a number of local runners from the D.C. region.
For the men are Wakefield High graduates Andrew Coe and Daniel Herring of Arlington, Thomas Mulhern from John Paul the Great and Evan Plath from Clifton’s Centreville High.
For the Mary Washington women, Maddie Binkley is a graduate of Independence High in Leesburg, Rania Carter attended Potomac’s Woodbridge High and Cameron Rico ran for Chantilly’s Freedom South Riding High.
The Gallaudet University, George Washington University and University of the District of Columbia teams do not have any runners from the D.C. area, and Georgetown University does not have a varsity men’s or women’s cross-country program.
The season begins for the area college teams in late August and early September.
