Women’s race

Addison “Addy” Wiley won another national championship on Friday, taking the NAIA title for her Huntington University in Vancouver, Washington.

Wiley covered the 6K Fort Vancouver National Historic Site course in the time of 21:04. She clocked a 3:20 final km to win by 12 seconds. It is her eighth NAIA title of 2023. She won two outdoors and five more indoors.

Ellyse Tingelstad from the school named College of Idaho raced neck and neck with Wiley for much of the three-lap race. She even led 4K. Into the final 2K lap, Wiley stepped on the gas and left her competition behind.

Tingelstad finished second in 21:16. She was one of three runners to finish in the top five who were representing the would-be champion team College of Idaho. Sage Martin was third in 21:39. Taylor’s Mollie Gamble was fourth in 21:40 and Abby Shirts finished in fifth place in 21:41.

“I really didn’t know what to expect since I haven’t run a 6K yet,” Wiley said in an interview posted by the NAIA. “I know this is a tough course. So I just wanted to get a feel for what everyone else is doing, but also know what I’m capable of. And kind of just judged the field as the race went on.

“I’ve made my mistakes in cross country in the past. I wanted to show that I learned from those and am a better racer now.”

College of Idaho scored a low of 62 points for the team win. They were heavily favoured going in.

Men’s race

It was the closest team race in 37 years. The number two-ranked Milligan Buffs men beat fourth-ranked Saint Mary Spiers 93-98. During the closing kilometre, the Spiers closed the gap on the Buffs, at one point being back 15 points.

Milligan finished first in 2021, and second in 2022. It was the closest scoring since Adams State and Western Colorado tied at 78 in 1986.

Milligan placed five men in the following order: 5-6-8-28-46 to 2-17-23-24-32 for Saint Mary.

Number 8 Cumberlands finished third with 114 and number 3, The Master’s, took fourth with 156. The top-ranked Indiana Wesleyan was 21st after one lap and looked out of it, but rallied to finish fifth at 206.

Jackson Wilson won overeall. He is the first individual champion from Rocky Mountain finishing the 8K course in 24:31. Joseph Skoog of Bethel was second in 24:40 and Emad Bashir-Mohammed took third in 24:49. He had led off the gun for the better part of three laps.

Robert Swoboda of Corban was fourth in 24:50 and Serhil Shevchenko of Cumberlands fifth in 24:55.

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