The 1969 NCAA University Division Men's Cross Country Championships were the 31st annual cross country meet to determine the team and individual national champions of men's collegiate cross country running in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Held on November 24, 1969, the meet was hosted by Manhattan College at

Van Cortlandt Park Van Cortlandt Park is a park located in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it is managed with assistance from the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance. The park, the city's third-lar ...

in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

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. The distance for this race was 6 miles (9.7 kilometers). All

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

University Division members were eligible to qualify for the meet. In total, 29 teams and 254 individual runners contested this championship. The team national championship was won by the

UTEP Miners The UTEP Miners is the name given to the sports teams of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). They are informally referred to as the Miners, UTEP, or Texas–El Paso. UTEP was a member of the Western Athletic Conference from 1967 to 2005, ...

, their first title. The individual championship was won by

Gerry Lindgren Gerald "Gerry" Paul Lindgren (born March 9, 1946) is an American track and field runner who set many long-standing high school and national records in the United States. In 1965, Lindgren and Billy Mills both broke the world record for the six-mi ...

, from

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, his third title, with a time of 28:59.20. , Lindgren remains one of four runners (

Steve Prefontaine Steve Roland "Pre" Prefontaine (January 25, 1951 – May 30, 1975) was an American long-distance runner who from 1973 to 1975 set American records at every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 meters. He competed in the 1972 Summer Olympics, a ...

Henry Rono Henry Rono (born 12 February 1952, in Kapsabet) is a Kenyan retired track and field athlete who specialised in various long-distance running events. Although he never competed at the Olympics, Rono is remembered as one of the most prolific coll ...

, and

Edward Cheserek Edward Cheserek (born 2 February 1994) is a Kenyan distance runner. He is a 17-time NCAA champion collegiate distance runner for the University of Oregon. Cheserek was the most highly recruited high school distance runner in the nation out of Sain ...

are the others) to win three individual cross country national championships. Prefontaine finished third in 1969 and would go on to win the following three years.

Men's title

*Distance: 6 miles (9.7 kilometers)

Team Result (Top 10)

References

{{1969–70 NCAA University Division championships navbox NCAA Cross Country Championships NCAA University Division Cross Country Championships NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships Manhattan College Track and field in New York City

Men's title

Team Result (Top 10)

See also

References