Moravian’s Hefferan & Smurla to Compete in 2025 NCAA DIII Cross Country National Championships
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. --- Moravian University junior Gavin Hefferan and senior Tara Smurla) have qualified as individual competitors in the 2025 NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships being hosted by Converse University and OneSpartanburg, Inc. on the Roger Milliken Cross Country course at the Roger Milliken Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The men’s race will begin at 10:00 a.m., followed by the women’s race at 11:00 a.m.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. --- Moravian University junior Gavin Hefferan and senior Tara Smurla have qualified as individual competitors in the 2025 NCAA Division III Cross Country National Championships being hosted by Converse University and OneSpartanburg, Inc. on the Roger Milliken Cross Country course at the Roger Milliken Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The men's race will begin at 10:00 a.m., followed by the women's race at 11:00 a.m.
Hefferan, who will be making his second appearance in the NCAA Cross Country Championships, finished sixth in the 2025 Metro Regional race with a personal best time of 24:45.80 on the 8,000-meter course at Gloucester County DREAM Park hosted by Rowan University to earn All-Region honors for the second straight fall. Hefferan, who was 124th at the 2024 NCAA Division III National Championships as the Moravian men competed as a team for the first time in program history, will be one of three Landmark Conference runners at the NCAA Championships with Elizabethtown College's Will Inglis and Derek Kendig also competing.
Hefferan is just the fourth Greyhound male to run at the NCAA Championships at least twice a career.
Smurla, who will be making her third appearance in the NCAA Cross Country Championships, won the 2025 Metro Regional race with a personal best time of 21:11.40 on the 6,000-meter course at Gloucester County DREAM Park to earn All-Region honors for the fourth consecutive year as she won her second straight Metro Regional title. Smurla, who was an All-American at the 2024 NCAA Division III National Championships with a 29th place finish in a time of 21:37.60, will be one of three Landmark Conference runners at the NCAA Championships with The Catholic University of America's Laurel McMahon and Olivia Sobkowicz also running.
Smurla is the 32nd Greyhound to run at the NCAA Championships and the 16th to race in the national championships at least twice. From 1993 to 2001, Moravian qualified as a team with seven student-athletes racing each year, and the Hounds finished third in the nation three times – 1993, 1995 and 2001 to go with top ten finishes in 1994, 1997 and 2000.
The top 35 finishers in the Division III Championships are recognized as All-Americans by the NCAA, and the United States Track and Field Association selects the top 15 for All-America honors.
The men's 2025 NCAA Division III Championship race will be run at Roger Milliken Cross Country course at the Roger Milliken Center and is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. Eastern on Saturday with the women's national championship race to follow at 11:00 a.m. The races will be broadcast live on https://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule/2025/11/22, and live results will be available at https://results.leonetiming.com/xc.html?mid=8059.
