Mount Allison University’s Cross Country Club qualified a full team roster for the CCAA National Championships after topping the field at the ACAA Championships in late October 2025. The achievement marks the first time in the program’s history that a full roster competed together at the CCAA nationals.
At the 2024 ACAA Championships, Mount Allison runners placed 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th — a depth that carried into the 2025 season and helped the team secure qualification in late October 2025. The university’s December 9, 2025 feature ‘Heart and Soles: It’s Much More Than Running’ highlights that depth as a key factor in earning the national berth.
Head coach Claire Pabody — a research associate in Mount Allison’s aquatic physiology and biochemistry lab — has led the club for nine seasons. Pabody emphasized the program’s culture of inclusion as central to its rise. “We get to go compete at the national level and represent Mount Allison and our amazing scrappy little club team,” she told CHMA. “I’ve wanted to do this for nine years and the fact that we’re finally getting to do it feels very surreal to me.”
Standout athletes include Tallulah MacNeil (silver at the 2024 ACAA Championships), and teammates Eilidh Cameron, Claire Wilbur and Elisabeth Allen, whose collective results gave Mount Allison the competitive depth required to field a national team. The ACAA official results list those individual placements and show Mount Allison winning the women’s team title at the conference meet.
The CCAA National Championships took place in November 2025 on Prince Edward Island. As a club sport, the cross country club relied on donations and peer fundraising to cover travel and accommodation costs — including support cited in the university feature such as the Campbell‑Verduyn Fund and a community GoFundMe — rather than regular varsity funding. Community backing and student-led campaigns helped ensure the full roster could attend nationals.
For further details, see the Mount Allison feature and the ACAA official championship results.
