U20 World Cross Country Championships
Daillak Top American Finisher at U20 Worlds, Helps US Earn Bronze
1/10/2026 2:33:00 PM | Cross Country
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Cal Poly’s Tyler Daillak is returning from Worlds with some hardware.
The true freshman and Paso Robles native was the top finishing American at the U20 World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, Florida, on Saturday, helping the U.S. earn a bronze medal as a team.
While running about half of the men’s U20 race with one shoe, the 18-year-old placed 16th overall with an 8K time of 24:46 on the Apalachee Regional Park course while competing against some of the best junior runners in the World. The finish matches American Leo Young’s 16th-place result at the 2023 U20 World Championships when the U.S. also earned bronze as a team. The prior best finish by an American in the U20 race was 11th by German Fernandez in 2009.
Fellow Americans Jackson Spencer (18th), Daniel Skandera (19th) and Aidan Torres (22nd) all finished within the top 25 individually to help the U.S. capture third as a team with 75 points. Over 70 runners from countless countries across the World took part in the meet.
Daillak, a 2025 Paso Robles High grad, qualified for the U20 World Championships and earned a spot on Team USA by capturing the silver medal at the USATF U20 Cross Country Championships in Portland on Dec. 6. While competing against some of the best U20 collegiate distance runners in the country, Daillak finished just three seconds behind Texas’ Aidan Torres to place second with an 8K time of 25:13.8.
In his first cross country season as a Mustang this fall, Daillak redshirted and competed in a pair of meets while running unattached, finishing fifth in the Bronco Invitational and seventh in the season-opening Gaucho Twilight.
Former Mustang Katie Izzo, a 2019 Cal Poly grad who was on the Mustang track and cross country teams from 2015-19 before transferring to Arkansas to finish her collegiate career, placed 24th overall in the women’s senior World Championship race and was the third American to cross the line, helping the U.S. women finish fourth.
