COMING UP: at NAIA Men's Cross Country National Championships, Vancouver, Wash. (Fort Vancouver National Historical Site), Friday, 10:30 a.m. (PST)
LIVE LINKS: Friday's National Championship will be carried live on the
NAIA Network, while Live Results will be posted through
Athletic Timing.
WHAT'S AT STAKE: The Coyotes earned one of 25 automatic bids in the 36-team field at the NAIA Championships with their victory at the Cascade Conference Championships. Teams earning automatic bids include Campbellsville (Ky.), Carroll (Mont.), College of Idaho, Cornerstone (Mich.), Dakota State (S.D.), Dordt (Iowa), Embry-Riddle (Ariz.), Grand View (Iowa), Midway (Ky.), Milligan (Tenn.), Missouri Baptist, Montreat (N.C.), Oklahoma City, Olivet Nazarene (Ill.), Our Lady of the Lake (Texas), SCAD-Savannah (Ga.), Shawnee State (Ohio), St. Francis (Ill.), St. Mary (Kan.), Taylor (Ind.), The Master's (Calif.) and William Carey (Miss.), with Bushnell (Ore.) earning the host berth. The 10 at-large teams include Aquinas (Mich.), Eastern Oregon, Goshen (Ind.), Grace (Ind.), Huntington (Ind.), Indiana Wesleyan, Lewis-Clark State, Marian (Ind.), Michigan-Dearborn, Northwest, Oregon Tech, Southern Oregon and Westmont (Calif.). The lowest number of place-points from the first five runners of each team will be crowned NAIA National Champion.
ABOUT THE COURSE: Established in 1825 by the British Hudson's Bay Company, Fort Vancouver served as the administrative center and principal supply depot for an extensive fur trading network through the Pacific Northwest. The Fort Vancouver course is a rolling, European-style layout consisting of 2-kilometer loops on grass. This moderately challenging course features sections of flat, uphill and downhill grades, providing the necessary variation that is to be expected in a national championship competition.
MEN'S HISTORY AT NATIONALS: The Coyotes make their 16th trip to the NAIA Championships, including every season since 2007. C of I has recorded six Top-10 finishes, taking fourth in 2016, fifth in 2019, seventh in 2015 and 2018 and tenth in both 2009 and 2017 – teaming with the women's squad in 2019 to win the Combined NAIA National Championship. A total of six student-athletes have earned All-America honors – Billy Godfrey,
Dominic Bolin,
Max Hampton,
Cole Campbell, three-time All-American Alex Martin and four-time All-American
Greg Montgomery.
YOTES RANKED #10: The Cascade Conference champions climbed four spots to No. 10 in the final NAIA Top-25 Coaches Poll, released on Nov. 8. St. Francis (Ill.) holds the No. 1 spot, with St. Mary (Kan.), Milligan (Tenn.), Taylor (Ind.) and Indiana Wesleyan completing the Top-5. Five other CCC teams were in poll – No. 12 Lewis-Clark State, No. 14 Oregon Tech, No. 17 Southern Oregon, No. 21 Eastern Oregon and No. 25 Northwest.
SURVEYING THE FIELD: It will be a competitive field – as defending champion, Taylor (Ind.) claimed the Crossroads title, outdistancing two other Top-10 teams. Oklahoma City, the 2018 and 2019 champs, return the No. 1 and No. 2 finishers in last season's championships – as Zouhair Talbi and Shimales Abebe were the top-two finishers at the Sooner Athletic Conference meet. Top-ranked St. Francis (Ill.) took six of the top eight spots in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference championships, paced by All-American Omar Paramo, while second-ranked St. Mary (Kan.) dominated the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference, as Aaron Jones led a group of 12 runners for the Spires in the Top-20. Milligan (Tenn.) is also a threat to win, placing six in the top-seven of the Appalachian Athletic Conference championships, including champ, Aaron Jones.
THE YOTES: C of I will be in the mix for a podium spot – as the team has a front-runner in
Logan Hunt, the CCC Runner of the Year – who has won three individual races this season and clocked a season-best time of 24:27. The Yotes had four other runners earn All-CCC honors – as returners
Braden Heath and
Daniel Butler were joined by freshmen
Brevin Vaughan and
Hayden Bostrom – with the team posting a first-to-fifth place gap of between 45 and 65 seconds in all five meets this season.
