Top high school and collegiate races will be held at John Hunt Park this fall
HUNTSVILLE – With local schools having outstanding individual or team performances in the recent 130-team Southern Showcase, the 2025 cross country schedule at John Hunt Park is just getting started. The 11-event timeline runs through Dec. 6 and will feature collegiate and high school gatherings, some of which include conference and regional championships.
“The Huntsville Sports Commission is proud to be a partner in this schedule and we especially appreciate the City of Huntsville and all the work they do as they’re the boots on the ground and building this great course,” said Mark Russell, executive director of the Huntsville Sports Commission.
The cross country course at John Hunt Park is noted where runners seem to excel and many times posting their personal best, which is known as PR. The fast course is known as “PR’ville” and will be the target of thousands of runners over the next four months on the beautiful manicured course, which was at one time home to two Huntsville Municipal Golf Courses.
The remainder of the 2025 schedule starts with an event this weekend: Sept. 26-27- Twilight at PR’ville Oct. 11- UAH Invitational Oct. 18- Randolph Invitational Oct. 24- Alabama Community College Conference Championships Oct. 27- Alabama Christian Athletics Association Championships Oct. 30- AHSAA 6-7A Sectionals Oct. 31- College Conference of the South Championships Nov. 1- Conference USA Conference Championships Nov. 15- NCAA Div. I South Regional Championships Dec. 6- Running Lane Championships The season schedule will feature this weekend’s Twilight at PR’ville, a new event where runners will take to the course under the lights and promises to be one of the highlights of the season for many of the participants. Will Rogers of Running Lane came up with the idea of running under the lights. “There will be a college race on Friday, followed by high school races on Saturday,” said Rogers. “We have 92 teams registered so far, 71 of which are from out of state with 14 states represented including as far away as Montana.” The annual UAH Invitational again promises to be an outstanding gathering of some of the top programs in the sport. Longtime UAH head coach David Cain added, “The last few years, we’ve had over 40 universities compete and last year we had three teams come from as far away as California. This year’s home meet is preparing us for bigger meets including 2026 as we’ll host the Div. II South Regional Championships and in 2027 we’ll be the host team for the Div. II National Championships. Thank you to all those responsible for providing us with a world class facility as I’ve seen lots of bene.ts from having this course available to us for recruiting purposes as UAH has bene.ted tremendously from showcasing this venue.” The Randolph High Invitational, hosted by the private school of Huntsville, is expected to feature several different teams that were not part of the recent Southern Showcase.
Both the Alabama Community College Conference and Alabama Christian Athletics Association Championships will jump into the action, and, according to Russell, “Will give runners an opportunity to run a course that usually don’t have an opportunity to run here.” The high school Sectional featuring the largest schools in Alabama in both Class 6 and 7A is set for the day before Halloween. The Alabama High School Athletic Association has long asked Huntsville to host and those involved decided this year would be a perfect time to play host to some of the top talent from the area. The high school event will kick off three consecutive days of top-notch cross country running as the College Conference of the South Championships will be held on Halloween the day following the high school racers.
“On Nov. 1, Conference USA will hold its title races. Russell added, “We’ve had a tremendous relationship with Conference USA as we’ve hosted their basketball tournament championship and beach volleyball championships. Now, we get to host the cross country championship and with that event we hope to expand our relationship with the conference.” On Nov. 15, the host site will be home of the NCAA Div. I South Regional Championships, which is expected to be a prestigious gathering as this will be the third time Huntsville has hosted this event and should feature some of the top runners in the Southeast, as the course record was set here from a runner from the University of Florida.
“We’ll closeout the schedule with the granddaddy of them all with one of the biggest races I’ve ever seen as we expect to have from two to four thousand runners here,” said Russell of the Running Lane Championships.
“Huntsville has become record city. It’s PR’ville and when people think of Huntsville they think of running fast,” said Rogers. “As the word gets out about Huntsville being PR’ville, those events will just keep snowballing and growing.” All details about the fall schedule for PR’ville are available on the Huntsville Sports Commission website.
