The Tar Heels placed fifth in a strong field featuring No. 12 Duke and No. 14 N.C. State.
None of the runners felt as much at home as the Wolfpack at N.C. State's University Club Course, which features a scenic view of a pasture full of cattle.
However, the Blue Devils (39 points) navigated the unfamiliar course easily and defeated the five-time defending ACC champion Wolfpack (49 points). N.C. State managed a second-place finish.
Duke's Sean Kelly took the individual title with a time of 25 minutes flat on the 8,000-meter course, edging out Virginia's Bob Thiele by two seconds.
UVa. and Wake Forest finished third and fourth, respectively, followed by UNC, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Maryland.
Although UNC improved on its seventh-place finish from a year ago, the Tar Heels expected a better performance.
"Obviously we are very disappointed," UNC coach Michael Whittlesey said. "Moving up in the conference is nice, but we all felt that we should have been able to do a better job."
Several UNC runners attributed the disappointing performance to their inability to run together as a team.
"After about a mile we sort of fell apart as a pack," said senior captain Nick Iauco, who finished 22nd with a time of 26:13.
