“OMG, you’re famous!” she texted him.

Well, yeah, in a way.

Cross-country athletes seldom wade in attention, especially on the crowded Bay Area sports landscape. But the Santa Clara men’s cross-country team amusingly, memorably and unwittingly carved out its own niche.

The tradition stretches back at least eight years, starting with a few runners growing out facial hair for the annual ritual of team and individual photos. More athletes became more into it as the years went along.

This year, Harvey Chilcott got a bowl cut and cheesy mustache. Oliver Branham-Upton let his hair grow super-long and curly, along with a Fu Manchu. Spencer Fischer connected his mustache with hair on each side of his face, sort of a mutton chops-meets-Victorian-era blend.

EJ Odocayen Cruz took a minimalist approach: a thin, half-mustache but otherwise clean-shaven (with thick, wavy black hair).

“We thought it was a great team tradition and good bonding,” said Chilcott, a senior from Tasmania. “We’d check in with each other over the summer to ask how the mustache was going. It was supposed to be a joke for family and friends, and then this year, it just blew up.”

Citius Mag, an outlet focused on running news, picked up the head shots and sent them bouncing around the digital world. They soon spread far and wide on Twitter, Tik Tok and Instagram.

Santa Clara cross country suddenly became a social-media phenomenon. USA Today did a story, as did some Bay Area television stations.

“We were just stunned,” Chilcott said. “We were totally not expecting it at all.”

There’s a story behind Chilcott’s striking bowl cut/mullet combo. He enlisted Dupree to give him the haircut outside their adjacent houses, even if Dupree had zero experience as a stylist.

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