The time shown is an expected track 5K — what the athlete's racing says they would run for 5,000 m on a flat track on a good day. It puts everyone on one scale, whatever course or weather they actually raced in.

It leans toward an athlete's best races. Every 2026 race counts, but the closer a race came to their best, the more it counts: a race 1% off their best counts about two-thirds as much, one 5% off hardly at all. An off day costs little; it is still not a single personal best — a PR is usually faster.

It also lags. Before an athlete races in 2026, the number comes from last season, read the same way. Each new race pulls it toward how they are running now. A first-year with one to three races is drawn partway toward a typical first-year in their division, because a few races say less than a season does.

The course projections are a forecast of a next race, so they start from the athlete's typical race rather than their best and run a little slower than the ranked number. The 6K, 8K and 10K equivalents and the projections all convert from cross country fitness. NCAA women race 6K; NCAA men race 8K in Division III and 10K in Divisions I and II. NAIA and JUCO championships are 8K for men and 5K for women.

That conversion is the same for everyone. Some athletes hold their speed better over longer distances than others — we do not account for that yet.

Most of the time a projected race time lands within 2.5% of what the athlete actually runs. For athletes with two or more races behind their estimate, most land within 2%.

2% of a 15:00 5K is about 18 seconds. Read the time as a range that wide, not as a stopwatch.

Linking training data from Strava and Garmin to these race results is how we expect to narrow it.

Rankings need qualifying 2026 cross-country results, or a 2025 XC fitness estimate built from at least two completed races. Track times can improve an existing XC estimate, but do not qualify an athlete on their own. DNS entries do not count as completed races.

Programs outside NCAA Divisions I–III, the NAIA and the NJCAA (JUCO) are not listed. Current college cross-country roster athletes are searchable even without an estimate. “Not ranked” means the athlete has no published fitness estimate; changing the filters will not give them a rank. Select the search result to see the race evidence we have.

Any athlete at a listed program enters with a 2026 XC result: a first-year, a transfer, a walk-on or a redshirt with no prior estimate is ranked on this season’s races alone, and an athlete returning after a gap blends an older XC estimate with their 2026 results. Results are included after the next rankings refresh and must pass the model’s data checks.

Division I, II and III athletes who have exhausted their NCAA eligibility are removed from the rankings automatically: in Division III, a senior who has already run four cross-country seasons and carries no redshirt designation for 2026; in Divisions I and II, an athlete with five seasons of results behind them. A 2025 senior absent from every posted roster is removed in any division. A 2026 XC result overrides those eligibility exclusions; a usable fitness estimate is still required.

Active athletes are on a posted 2026 TFRRS roster or have completed a race in 2026, and a result counts even when TFRRS has no roster for the program yet. Inactive athletes have remaining eligibility but are on no posted TFRRS roster and have not run a race this season.

Early in the season, inactive athletes are listed but hidden by default; “Include inactive” under Filters, or “Show” under the rankings, shows them.

“Season best” ranks by it instead: each athlete’s single fastest 2026 race, adjusted for the course and the day the same way their number is. Only races on a rated course count — an unrated course gets no adjustment, and a fast one would top the list on the course, not the runner — so an athlete whose races have all been on unrated courses has no season best yet and leaves that ranking. Each division opens on it once its Pre-Nationals results are in.

Among active athletes, those who have raced in 2026 carry those results in their number — the stopwatch in the table marks them, and the “Raced in 2026” filter keeps only them. Active athletes who have not raced yet are on a roster, so their number is still the pre-season estimate.

Rankings key athletes to their 2025 program, so transfers appear at their old school and division until 2026 results arrive. Track marks are adjusted for the facility (altitude, banked or flat) and, outdoors, for the day's weather before they enter the number. TFRRS occasionally splits one athlete across two ids; same-name-and-school records were merged, but a renamed or transferred twin can still split a record.

Other tools can help normalize performances across races; KPACE learns why those performances differ by separately measuring the athlete, the course, the weather, and the distance.

A place is a position in the field of every entrant, not in the full athlete list: athletes outside a program's top seven, and every athlete at a program with fewer than five, take no place. A tie on score goes to the team whose sixth runner placed higher; a team without a sixth loses that tie, and a tie that remains goes to the fifth. Top 5 avg is the mean track 5K of the five who score, on the Athletes tab's scale.

The deck’s filters decide, exactly as they do on the Athletes tab: a program is scored from the athletes the filters show. With “On a 2026 roster” on, only athletes on a posted 2026 TFRRS roster enter; with “Raced in 2026” on, only athletes with a 2026 result. Departed athletes never enter. A score is a projection from current fitness, not a prediction of any one meet — rivals race on different days and courses.