Damon Martin is planning to be in Kenosha, Wis., this weekend for the 2025 NCAA DII National Cross Country Championships. He’s just not sure he will be at the actual races when Adams State runs for men’s and women’s team gold.
He is under doctor’s orders to keep his excitement level down.
Martin, the longtime Adams State cross country coach who is the winningest coach in college sports history based on national team titles won, suffered a heart attack two weeks ago following the Grizzlies’ impressive team wins at the NCAA DII South-Central Region Championships in Pueblo.
He is traveling with the team to Kenosha, where weather on race day looks balmy at 50 degrees. But, he says, he’s unsure if he will go to the course on race day, “as I’m not to get my heart rate too high or stressed.”
He says he wants to get the men’s and women’s teams in the right frame of mind heading into Saturday’s championship race day. That’s understandable given the Grizzlies’ opportunity to win both the men’s and women’s team titles – once again.
It’s been a bit since Adams State men entered the national race as one of the teams to beat. With team wins at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships and South-Central Region Championships, the Grizzlies are peaking at the right time and enter Saturday with a shot to win their 14th NCAA DII team title and first since 2017.
Kidus Begashaw, a senior runner from Aurora, has been pacing the Grizzlies’ men’s team this season. He was runnerup individually at both the RMAC and South-Central Region championships and the Grizzlies have knitted a strong group behind him that includes Julian Campos, Nathan Scherbarth, Max Aldrick and Jack Gumm to give Adams State a shot at team gold in Kenosha.
The women’s team returns as the defending champion and Adams State women have captured 21 NCAA DII cross country team titles under Martin, including winning four out of the last five championship races.
Two runners, Tristian Spence and Ava O’Connor, give Adams State strong contenders for the individual title but they’ll have to outrun the defending champion, Lauren Kiley from Grand Valley State.
The last time the storied Adams State cross country program won both the men’s and women’s team titles in the same year was 2017. In a year when the teams dedicated their seasons to the late Joe I. Vigil and then their longtime coach suffered a heart attack two weeks before the championship races, Adams State coming out of Kenosha, Wisc., with a pair of team championship trophies would only seem fitting for 2025.