CROSS COUNTRY

Sophomore Addy Wiley headlined the NAIA National Cross Country Championships by being crowned the 2023 Cross Country National Champion.

Running her first 6K of the season, Wiley blew away the competition to win the individual title in 21:04.2, beating her nearest competitor, Ellyse Tingelstad of College of Idaho, by 12 seconds. Last year the Huntington native was the national runner-up.

As a program, it was the Foresters fifth straight trip to the big dance with the #12 HU women’s team outrunning their seeding to take sixth with 201 points out of 36 teams. On the men’s side, the 25th-ranked HU men’s team finished 24th out of 35 teams with 547 points.

Joining Wiley as one of the top finishers in the women’s race was Anna Martin. Competing in a field of 331 runners, the junior transfer crossed the line in 21:57.6 for 11th place. She along with Wiley were deemed All-Americans for their top 40 finish. For Wiley, it’s her second All-American praise while Martin is a three-time NAIA All-American.

Next for the Foresters was junior Emily Tedder who clocked in at 23:09.3 for 60th place (47th in scoring). Sophomore Molly Harding navigated the Fort Vancouver National Historic Championship Course in 23:25.7 to claim the 87th spot (69th in scoring). Rounding out Huntington’s scoring was sophomore Malarie Pinwar in 91st place (73rd in scoring) in 23:27.4.

Other finishers for HU included sophomore Alyeska Linsley (231st, 24:46.9) and junior Deann Fry (237th, 24:49.5).

Sixth place is the highest finish at nationals in HU women’s cross country program history with the previous best a tenth place finish in 2019.

College of Idaho won the women’s title with 68 points. Rounding out the top ten included The Master’s (92), St. Mary (Kan.) (133), Milligan (145), Taylor (184), HU (201), St. Francis (Ill.) (282), Southern Oregon (317), Cumberlands (321) and Dordt (332).

Other teams in the Crossroads League to compete were Grace (13th), Indiana Wesleyan (14th) and Goshen (15th).

Graduate student Kent Yoder paced the men’s 8K for HU. The Westview product finished 53rd out of 328 runners (47th in scoring) in 25:51.0. On his heals was senior Austin Liepe who was two spots back in 55th place (49th in scoring) in 25:51.6. Senior Reece Gibson came in next for Neideck’s crew in 26:26.1 for a 119th place finish (97th in scoring).

Junior Jonah Lemmon turned in a time of 27:06.1 for 208th place (156th in scoring). Junior Carter VanderMeer rounded out his team’s scoring by coming in 266th (198th in scoring) with a time of 27:48.0. Other competitors for Huntington included junior Isaac Combs (303rd, 29:22.1) and sophomore Tyler Loucks (317th, 31:09.6).
Milligan took home the men’s team title with 93 points. Rounding out the top ten included St. Mary (Kan.) (98), Cumberlands (114), The Master’s (156), Indiana Wesleyan (206), College of Idaho (280), Eastern Oregon (283), Dordt (298), Taylor (300) and Montreat (320).

In addition to HU (24th), IWU (5th) and Taylor (9th), other Crossroads League teams represented at nationals included Grace (13th) and Goshen (16th).

“Today was a great day for our program,” said Coach Josh Neideck. “The women finalized a tremendous progression through a very challenging fall with a sixth place finish in a stacked field.

“The men had a challenging day, but still finished higher than our rating coming in. That’s not everything, but it does allow us to take something positive away from a tough day.”