Stories are courtesy of KWUCoyotes.com
Women’s Recap
During a preseason meeting without their coaches in attendance members of the Kansas Wesleyan women’s cross country team set a lofty goal for the 2025 season – win the Kansas Conference Championship.
Running on the home course of pre-race favorite and 10th-ranked Saint Mary the Coyotes placed five runners among the top nine and completed their mission Saturday morning. They finished with 27 points, just ahead of Saint Mary, which had 32. Evangel was third with 98 points.
Their reward is a berth in the NAIA National Championships on Nov. 21 in Tallahassee, Fla. It was KWU’s first women’s conference cross country title since 2013.
“They said, ‘we want to win a conference championship,” coach Garret Young said of the meeting. “We knew that was going to be a tall ask but they went (into the season) wanting to do it. From the very get go we wanted to set really high hopes, really high expectations and we did not fall short.”
Kierra Jensen led the way finishing second in 22 minutes, 32.51 seconds. Kirstin Hackney was third (22:34.85), Josie Koppes sixth (22:51.07), Madisyn Ehrlich seventh (23:02.94) and Micah Dicken ninth (23:30.98).
Saint Mary’s Josie Tyrell won the 6-kilomenter race in 21:40.77.
“We went in with a really aggressive race plan, and they executed to the highest level,” Young said. “I’m really proud of the effort that they put out there today. I’m really proud of the belief, the faith they had in themselves, and to do that on Saint Mary’s home course was definitely not an easy task.”
Young said his runners didn’t let the moment get the best of them.
“Josie Tyrell ran a very brave race. I mean, she got out super hard,” he said. “I don’t know that our girls saw her a whole lot of her but beyond that Kierra Jensen and Kirstin Hackney were kind of leading that next charge and had to battle some (Saint Mary) Spires. But they were just very, very composed.”
Young said it was effectively business as usual.
“They just show up every single day with a work-hard attitude and can-do mindset,” he said. “I throw a lot of hard tasks at them that they go and complete them without any complaints. They execute at a really high level, and they’ve never questioned the process. It makes my job a lot easier.”
Seven other Coyotes competed in Saturday’s race that had 101 runners. Shelby Lingle was 13th (23:3.98), Hailey Nordhus 15th (23:56.73), Charlee Lind 16th (23:59.18), Makayla Little 18th (24:06.84), Mya Schweitzer 26th (24:48.37), Emma McAlister 27th (24:52.71) and Joni Schroeder 30th (25:08.59)
Men’s Recap
Kansas Wesleyan’s Damion Jackson showed once again why is one of the best distance runners in the Kansas Conference.
Jackson was the first across the finish line in Saturday morning at the KCAC Men’s Cross Country Championship.
Jackson, a junior from Gypsum, ran the 8-kilometer course in 24 minutes, 57.76 seconds finishing ahead of runner-up Kenneth Howell of Saint Mary (25:00.59). Jackson placed second in the 2024 KCAC Championship (25:09.8).
“I don’t know the last time we had an individual KCAC meet champion, but Damion executed at a really high level,” coach Garrett Young said.
The Coyotes placed second in the team standings with 44 points. Saint Mary, the fifth-ranked team in the NAIA, was first with 32 points while Evangel took third with 72. It was KWU’s third consecutive second-place finish.
Jake Cruz placed sixth for the Coyotes (25:26.85), Ethan Ochana 10th (25:38.84), Evan Pearce 12th (25:39.69) and Braulio Torres 15th (25:43.52) in rounding out the scoring.
“Jake Cruz left it out there for our guys again,” Young said. “We had some great efforts, some great individual races out there. Ethan Ochana ran a really good race, a really aggressive race. Evan Pearce really hit a breakthrough today.
“It wasn’t quite enough for the team title, but I am really proud of the men’s team. I think we knew that it was a tall task at hand that we were asking them to go after. I felt like for the most part we executed at a high level.”
Young said he’s pleased with the progress the men made during the season.
“We definitely took some strides this year,” he said. “We have some seniors out there that have been through this and really given us some good efforts. I wanted to win it for those guys.
“I think the team as a whole did work really hard this season. Definitely some ups and downs but we had some talks about really putting high effort out, really attacking, being brave, taking risks and I think that kind of culminated today with a lot of sharp performances.”
Wesleyan had a huge contingent in the men’s race. Tytus Reed placed 19th (26:02.82), Wyatt Johnson 22nd (26:11.02), Luke Adams 26th (26:23.52), Triston Cottone 27th (26:30.44), Austin Schaeffer 30th (26:42.14), Ian Doss 38th (27:06.58), Jude Nelson 42nd (27:19.26), Nicolas Martinez 48th (27:31.48), Mauricio Mendez 52nd (27:41.89), Brodie Bradshaw 54th (27:54.42), Cohen Greve 62nd (28:16.46), Connor Olsen 66th (28:31.91), Barka Bapeng Jr. 71st (29:11.17), Will Childers 73rd (29:15.94), Logan Topp 82nd (29:43.16) and Efrain Santibanez 97th (31:42.10).
The Coyotes will have to wait until the NAIA selection show Tuesday to see if they get a berth in the national championship Nov. 21 in Tallahassee, Fla.
“I feel strongly that we did enough as the rules are written right now,” Young said. “We have a large conference; we finished ahead of 12 teams. We should get in but we have to wait for the final rankings and the final poll.”
