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Complete List of Women Scholar-Athletes - Click Here
KENOSHA, Wis. – Malone University (Ohio) defeated Azusa Pacific University (Calif.) by 57 points to win the NAIA Men’s Cross Country National Championship Saturday, Nov. 22 at Dr. Wayne E. Dannehl Cross Country Course in Kenosha, Wisc. The Pioneers won their second straight and third overall team title.
Malone placed three runners in the top-10 and posted a score of 61 points while Azusa Pacific finished with 118 points. Aquinas College (Mich.) scored 194 points for third place and Southern Oregon University finished three points behind with 197 points for fourth. Indiana Institute of Technology (245) Concordia University (Neb.) (249 points), Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Fla.) (263 points), Black Hills State University (S.D.) (281), Concordia University (Ore.) (288 points) and Huntington University (Ind.) (308) all finished in the top-10.
Aron Rono of Azusa Pacific (Calif.) won the individual title for second straight season with a time of 23:45.8 while teammate Abednego Magut crossed the line third in 24:31.3. Malone’s Nikolaus Schweikert (24:03.0) finished second and his teammate Aaron Melhorn (24:36.1) placed fifth. Jordan Powell of Oklahoma Christian University came in fourth with a time of 24:35.1 to round out the top-five finishers.
Dickinson State had three runners competing at the championships--Pablo Puga (39th, 25:31.9, 5:09/mile), Sammy Chavez (221st, 27:11.1, 5:29/mile) and Salvador Bautista (226th, 27:15.1).
Puga was nine places and about three seconds per mile on the outside of All-American status, or about 15 total seconds. That may sound like a bitter ending to his senior season until one considers that he ran a lifetime best by over one minute, and that his 5:09 mile pace is about the speed he cranks out in practice on mile-repeat days. Of course, in that scenario, Puga, like his teammates are then given a recovery period before the next mile and thus for him to run five miles in succession at that pace without a break is certainly a “hats-off” achievement.
The 2008 NAIA Men's Cross-Country Coach-of-the-Year honors went to Jack Hazen of Malone College. He also earned the honors in 1972 and 2007 after leading the Pioneers to their first two titles.
Azusa Pacific (Calif.), Malone (Ohio), Indiana Tech and California State-San Marcos earned the team awards after compiling the lowest combine (men and women) scores at the national championships.
In addition to the success of the men's runners, Rayel McPeters was honored as a 2008 Daktronics-NAIA Women's Cross Country Scholar-Athlete. There were 251 women's cross country runners who received this recognition, represented by 108 schools. To qualify, the athletes are nominated by each institution's head coach, and the student-athlete must maintain a cumulative minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and have achieved junior academic status.
Men Earn Five All-DAC Spots, Three Qualify for Nationals
Complete Men Results - Click Here
Complete Women Results - Click Here
Harriers Compete at Mt Marty Invite in Last Tune-up Before DAC; Men Take 3rd Place
Complete Results - Click Here
In their final competition before the Dakota Athletic Conference Championships, the Dickinson State Blue Hawks made themselves known to the 300 competitors Saturday at the Graphic Edge Cross-Country Invitational, hosted jointly by the University of South Dakota and Mount Marty College in Vermillion, S.D.
The men’s team placed 3rd of the 15 teams who scored in their 8K competition. The women’s team did not fare as well in their 5K race, but it is now known that Rayel McPeters definitely has a shot at qualifying for the NAIA national meet. Like all conference runners, she will get the opportunity at the DAC meet on November 8th at Madison, S.D.
The men were led by Pablo Puga. In mid-race he was running comfortably but was probably not in the top 50 runners. However, he worked his way form the upper middle of the field of 142 finishers to the upper tier, where he ultimately hit the line in the 12th position in 26:36. Sammy Chavez, who competed for the first time all fall, ran 2nd for the Hawks and finished in 21st place overall at 26:59. He was followed by Dominic Tarus (23rd, 27:04), Dan Molnar (26th, 27:15), and Patrick Wolf (29th, 27:17).
For the DSU men to earn a bid to the national meet they will have to perform at least this well at the DAC finals. The two teams who finished ahead of the Hawks today were expected to do so--if one pays much attention to the NAIA rating which placed Concordia (Neb.) and Black Hills State (S.D.) in the 7th and 11th spots respectively (October 21st).
McPeters ran her best race this season and finished 37th out of 157 finishers. The course, which is normally very fast, lost some of its speed due to recent rains but McPeters was not dissuaded. Her 19:56 is well within range of her PR of 19:27 from 2007. It also puts her in the thick of the hunt to earn an at-large berth for the national meet in Kenosha, Wisc., November 22. It’s a safe bet that she will give it her all.
Melissa Perez (22:57), Kalie Ellis (23:30) Debbie Lopez (23:55) and Elise Daughton (24:48) complete the top five finishers for DSU.
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