FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A day after the United States hosted its first World Athletics Cross Country Championships in more than 30 years, GRC Tracksmith—a Washington, D.C.-based running team—returned to the same obstacle-laden course and captured its first national team title at the 2025/26 USATF Club Cross Country Championships.
Known within the sport as “Clubs,” the USATF Club Cross Country Championships routinely attracts Olympic Trials qualifiers, NCAA All-Americans, and national-class club programs from across the country, offering deeper competition than many standalone elite races.
For the team of working professionals, GRC Tracksmith’s victory marked the culmination of a long-standing goal. The club first competed in the event in 2007, falling one athlete short of a scoring team. Since 2010, under the leadership of Coach Jerry Alexander, the team has gradually progressed towards January 11’s victory.
In 2009, the men’s team finished 19th, and in 2013, the men first placed inside the top 10, finishing 9th in Bend, Ore. In 2023, when the last race was last held in Tallahassee’s Apalachee Regional Park, GRC Tracksmith cracked the top 5 with a 4th-place finish that made a potential victory feel attainable.
“Our athletes prioritize this race and train for it together,” Alexander said. “Back in 2010, our goal was to be in the top 10. As we attracted more professional-level runners and broke into the top 5, we started believing that, if we put in the work together, victory was possible. In Tallahassee, we got that low stick we needed combined with quality depth, and got the job done. The result was a testament to years of steady improvement, our support for each other, and our passion for racing as a team.”
GRC Tracksmith won the 10k race with 74 points, finishing ahead of Brooklyn Track Club (101), Wisconsin Runner Racing Team (108), and HOKA Aggie Running Club (121). The banner day for GRC Tracksmith also included a fourth-place finish by the women’s team and a fifth-place finish by the men’s masters team.
The men’s open team was led by Cameron Miller, who delivered a breakthrough national performance with a runner-up finish in 31:05, the highest individual finish ever by a GRC athlete at the championships. Miller, who ran at Stanford University and returned to competition after law school, ran with the lead pack throughout the race before moving into second place in the closing kilometers.
GRC’s depth was anchored by Keith Carlson, a former Division III national competitor at Willamette University and an IT specialist in health information technology, who finished 15th (31:57). He was followed by Jack Whetstone, a foreign affairs officer and multiple-time All-American in collegiate cross country, in 20th (32:10), and Seth Slavin, a software systems engineer, in 21st (32:12). Tyler French, an engineer and former steeplechaser, rounded out the scoring five in 29th (32:28) despite training interruptions. Campbell Ross, a bioinformatician who began serious training after college, placed 33rd (32:34) as GRC’s sixth finisher. Sam Angevine (34:05, 76th), Rob Mirabello (34:14, 79th), Marcelo Jauregui-Volpe (33:59, 84th), Jason Putnam (34:22, 97th), and Connor Wooding (34:45, 109th) completed GRC Tracksmith’s team.
Balancing professional and athletic commitments, GRC Tracksmith members blend high-volume training with full-time work and family responsibilities. Under the guidance of Alexander, a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, the team meets weekly on Wednesdays for track sessions and, as the championship season approaches, for Saturday tempo runs on a gravel trail. Long runs anchor the program on Sundays. One key workout in the buildup to Clubs was an extended variation of the Michigan workout on the track. It featured a 4-3-2-1 lap ladder with a cruise mile between each segment and just one minute of recovery across the board.
GRC Tracksmith President Dickson Mercer, who joined the club in 2009, a year prior to Alexander coming onboard, watched the results flash on the scoreboard after competing in the masters race.
“Winning Clubs is not something we could have imagined doing when I joined the team, “and I still can’t imagine it ever happening without Coach Jerry,” Mercer said. “For the past 15 years, Coach Jerry has managed our team around the clock without a break, shaping a training system and team culture that’s drawn more post-collegiate athletes to stay in the sport and continue competing. This national title was achieved by staying true to our belief in the benefits of group training – both to run faster and make the sport more fun.”
As athletes attended the awards ceremony in Tallahassee, GRC Tracksmith also celebrated Zack Holden’s performance at the Houston Marathon, where he ran 2:15:27 to finish as the seventh American, earning qualification for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. Looking ahead, the team will seek to add more athletes to the Olympic Trials starting line after qualifying eight runners for the event in 2024.
About GRC Tracksmith
GRC Tracksmith is an elite competitive running team based in Washington, D.C., composed of post-collegiate athletes balancing high-level training with full-time professional careers. The club competes regionally nationally across cross country, track, and road racing, with a focus on long-term athlete development, team culture, and sustained competitive excellence.
Contact:
For more information, email info@grcrunning.com