Last year at the ACC Cross Country Championship, Virginia made history when then-junior Gary Martin won the individual title –– a feat Virginia had not achieved in 14 years.
Martin’s accomplishment, to some extent, came out of the blue last year. While he is a strong runner, Martin was not favored to win –– at that point he was better-known for his success in the mile and 1500 meters. Additionally, he was up against tough competition, particularly from North Carolina’s Parker Wolfe, who has since graduated.
The Cavaliers as a team, though, placed fourth overall, a step behind where they had finished in 2023.
Now heading into the 2025 ACC Championship, the Virginia men’s team is in a very different position than last year and might be closer than they have been in years to an ACC Championship win.
As a whole, the Virginia men’s team as a whole is formidable. With a victory in Panorama Farms and a second place finish at the Gans Creek Classic, the Cavaliers’ resume is one of the nation’s best. They have been ranked No. 4 in the USATFCCCA rankings in the most recent poll, whereas at this same time last year, they were ranked No. 16.
This year, by all metrics, the Cavaliers seem likely to perform better.
Cross country tends to be a relatively short season –– all in all, the Cavaliers have only had four real meets before the championship season resumes on Friday. Virginia hasn’t had a race champion since early September, instead winning through a committee approach that has no true weak spot.
They won all of their smaller meets like the Spider Alumni Open, Virginia Invitational, Panorama Farms Invitational, but also were able to perform well at the Gans Creek Classic, beating out what had been expected of them prior to the start of the season.
Heading into the pre-season, Wake Forest was favored to be the ACC men’s cross country front-runner, but Virginia handily defeated them at the Gans Creek Classic where the Cavaliers took second and the Deacons languished in ninth. The only other ACC team between them was Syracuse in sixth.
At the center of the title chase is Martin, who is expected to be Virginia's fastest runner competing — but he has had a strange season.
Since the start of the 2025 campaign, Martin has only run one race at the Gans Creek Classic Sept. 26 –– the course which will be the site of the NCAA Championships — which was Virginia’s most competitive race this far.
There, Martin finished in ninth overall with a very tight pack running from sixth to tenth, all of them within a few tenths of a second of each other. The eight runners who finished above him also are not in the ACC, meaning Martin will not have to compete against them Friday.
Martin should not be counted out as an ACC individual favorite, but there is not enough data from his season to place him as a pre-race frontrunner.
Even if Martin cannot pull off an individual win, there is a strong chance of a Virginia team win at the ACC Championships. The team, especially graduate students Nate Mountain, Brett Gardener and Justin Wachtel, have consistently performed well together this season.
Wachtel, in particular, will be a key performer for the Cavaliers. Back at the Gans Creek Classic, he finished three spots behind Martin in 12th, indicating strength on a key course.
That same race was also a personal record for Wachtel with his time coming in at 22:54.50. Wachtel also won the Virginia Invitational and was the runner-up at the Spider Alumni Open.
Mountain and Wachtel have been with Virginia since the beginning of their eligibility but Gardener was a new addition to the team. He had previously run at North Carolina State as an undergraduate, and showed consistent improvement in his cross country times, particularly in his senior year when he placed 17th at ACCs and 13th at NCAA Southeast Regionals.
The upcoming course for ACCs, while not a frequently visited course for Virginia, is familiar to a number of runners on the men’s team.
Senior Will Anthony, Wachtel, Gardener and Martin have all ran at the Tom Sawyer State Park course in Louisville, Ky. –– the site of ACCs this year ––– back in 2023 for the NCAA Southeast Regional. Even though that was for a 10k not the 8k that will be run at ACCs, the course map will be largely the same.
The last time Virginia has won a men’s ACC Championship in cross country was in 2008. This is likely their best chance since then to claim it. Next year, Martin and many of the high-performing graduate students will run out of NCAA eligibility, leaving a more difficult situation in 2026 and beyond.
The team’s long-term sustainability may be in question, but the focus for now should be on trying to make the most of their current advantage.
By no means is Virginia cross country’s current stance in the ACC utterly indicative of victory –– they will have to work hard individually to have their top five runners place high enough –– but they have an excellent opportunity lying ahead of them.
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