KANSAS — The 2025 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) Cross Country Championships will be held Saturday, November 8. Hosted by the University of Saint Mary, the meet will be held on the Spires' on-campus home course. The following is a meet preview written by meet announcer and long-time contributor to the KCAC, Carol Swenson.
2025 KCAC Cross Country Championships Preview
by Carol R Swenson, Meet Announcer
The 2025 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) Cross Country Championships will be held Saturday, November 8. For the second straight year, the meet will be held on the University of Saint Mary's on-campus home course, located at 4100 South 4th Street in Leavenworth.
The women's 6-kilometer race will have a start time of 10:00 a.m. followed by the men's 8-kilometer race scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m. 2025 will mark the third season the women will contest the championship meet distance of 6-kilometers.
Saint Mary head coach Alstin Benton describes the course as follows: "The course is a difficult, true cross-country course with varying terrain. The starting chute is 400 meters long prior to the first turn. The runners will run areas of grass, dirt, and mulch while traversing hills of varying distance with the most daunting hill nearing 170m long with a grade of nearly 10% during portions of the ascent. The women will run this hill twice while the men will encounter it three times.
The course consists of a main loop of approximately 2,500m with an add-on loop of 500 meters. The women will run the main loop including the add-on loop twice for the full 6k.
The men will run the main loop three times with the add-on loop only on the final lap for the full 8k course.
The course is spectator friendly. While the runners will go out of view for three to four minutes on the western portion of the main loop per a lap, spectators will see them come over the hill and work their way back down towards the finish area with the women passing the spectator/finish area four times and the men six times plus the start and finish run-in."
The top 10 finishers in the women's and men's races in the KCAC Championship Meet are designated All-KCAC with the finishers in 11th through 20th places will be designated as All-KCAC Second Team.
Qualifying Procedure for NAIA National Championships
In addition to determining the 2025 KCAC individual and team champions, the meet will serve as the KCAC qualifying meet for the 46th Annual Women's and 70th Annual Men's NAIA National Cross Country Championships, which will be held November 21st on the Apalachee Regional Cross Country Course in Tallahassee, Florida. (Complete qualifying standards for the National Championships are below.)
- For conferences with 12 or more scoring schools (five to seven runners finishing), two automatic team berths are given only if the second team is rated among the top 30 in the final regular season NAIA poll to be released Tuesday, November 11th. In addition to the qualifying team(s), the top six (6) individual finishers not on a qualifying team and finishing among the KCAC's top 20 scoring finishers will also qualify for the NAIA National meet.
- If 6 to 11 schools have scoring teams (at least five runners finishing), the conference will receive only one automatic berth plus four (4) individuals in the top 15 scoring finishers not on a qualifying team.
- Conference of 5 or fewer scoring teams • Top 2 finishers not on a qualifying team (at-large) • Individual scoring finish must be 8th or better
Women's Championship Preview
2024 found the University of Saint Mary women winning their fifth straight and seventh of the past eight editions of the KCAC Cross Country Championships. The University of Saint Mary ran away with the women's team championship occupying the first eight finishing places (i.e., only seven figured in the team scoring) while setting a new KCAC Championship meet record with their winning team score of 15 points, the lowest possible team score and bettering the previous record of 16 points set by Friends in 2011 and tied by USM in 2023.
Entering this year's Championships, the University of Saint Mary women currently rank #10 in the NAIA national poll while Kansas Wesleyan currently ranks #14.
USM and Kansas Wesleyan each have five runners ranked among the top 10 KCAC season best performances for 2025, but the Spires' five are all ranked in the top seven which would appear to make the USM Spires women the favorite for another team title, but Kansas Wesleyan's front running five appears ready to mount a serious challenge to USM and should lead the Coyotes to an automatic team berth at the NAIA National Championships, with Evangel and Tabor likely battling for third.
Four of the top 10 individual finishers from the 2024 KCAC Championships are eligible to return this fall led by 4th place finisher Josie Tyrrell (Saint Mary) and teammate Abigail White (USM), who was 5th. Josie Koppes (Kansas Wesleyan) in 9th was the first non-Spire across the finish line in 2024, followed by her teammate Kierra Jensen (KWU, 10th). Carly Holadia (Saint Mary) led the Second Team All-KCAC honorees in 11th, just ahead of Madisyn Ehrlich (KWU, 12th) with Adrienne Selzer (Tabor) in 14th. Kansas Wesleyan's Charlee Lind (16th) and Kirstin Hackney (18th) round out the 2024 All-KCAC performers eligible to return in 2025.
Madisyn Ehrlich and Josie Tyrrell are the only three-time All-KCAC performers back in 2025. Ehrlich placed 10th in 2022 and 12th in 2023 in addition to last year's 12th place finish. Tyrrell was 13th in 2022 and 10th in 2023, before finishing 4th last season.
Josie Koppes, Charlee Lind, and Abigail White join Ehrlich and Tyrrell as multiple All-KCAC performers after Koppes was 11th, Lind 18th, and White 19th in 2023.
The October 24th Blazing Tiger Classic hosted by Doane College and the College of Saint Mary (NE) on the Mahoney State Park course in Ashland, Nebraska was the site for the top 16 season best times by KCAC women. Josie Tyrrell (USM) comes into the Championship weekend with the only sub-22-minute season best time (21:16.7). Coyote teammates Kirstin Hackey and Kierra Jensen pace six KWU runners under 23-minutes edging USM's five under 23.
Eyeing top 20 finishes in the conference race and possible national qualifying spots beyond the KCAC's two likely NAIA qualifying teams are Julianna Maxfield and Adrienne Selzer of Tabor, Bethany Schrag (Bethel), along with Kadence Oehlschlager and Emily Harris of Evangel, plus Lexi Patterson (Friends) vying for the last available spots.
The big question is: Can Kansas Wesleyan's depth be able to break up the homestanding Spires group of front runners enough to give the Coyotes their first team title since 2013?
2025 KCAC Runners of the Week:
9/08 Josie Tyrell (Saint Mary) – USM Sunset Showdown
9/16 Emily Harris (Evangel) – Queen City Invitational
9/22 Emily Harris (Evangel) – MSSU Southern Stampede
10/6 Kirstin Hackney (Kansas Wesleyan) – Mount Mercy Seminole Valley Stampede
10/13 Josie Tyrell (Saint Mary) – Allen CC Firestarter
10/27 Josie Tyrell (Saint Mary) – Doane/College of St Mary Blazing Tiger Classic
Men's Championship Preview
Same song, 13th verse! Nothing appears to have changed in the past 12 months as the University of Saint Mary Spires men will again enter the KCAC Championships as the favorite, on course to win an 13th straight KCAC team crown. Last year the Spires placed all seven (7) scorers among the first 10 finishers as they ran away with the 2024 KCAC team title with a score of 22 points, 20 points ahead of second place Kansas Wesleyan, with Evangel 53 points back of the Coyotes.
Is 2025 the year when Kansas Wesleyan can finally break through? Saint Mary returns All-KCAC first team performers Aleksandr Krikov (3rd in 2024) and Kenneth Howell (8th) along with Second Team All-KCAC Jorge Perez (20th) from last season. However, KWU counters with Damion Jackson, who edged Krikov by 0.1 second for the runner-up spot last year, Brenden Ellis (13th), Jake Cruz (18th), Austin Schaeffer (21st), Tytus Reed (23rd), Ty Davidson (25th), and Wyatt Johnson (26th).
Saint Mary is currently ranked #5 in the latest NAIA national poll, with Kansas Wesleyan currently ranked #28. USM won the Blazing Tiger Classic over then #4 College of Idaho and #15 Doane, with Kansas Wesleyan finishing 4th at that event.
Damion Jackson (KWU) and Kenneth Howell (USM) are the favorites for the individual title as they lead the 2025 KCAC top performers list with the only two sub-25 minutes season bests, with Jackson's 24:46.3 third place finish at the Seminole Valley Stampede edging Howell's 24:50.9 fourth place finish at the Blazing Tiger Classic for the top spot.
Last year's 15th place finisher, Ethan Montgomery (Evangel) ranks third in 2025 with a season best 25:05.5 followed by five Spires, Austin Howell, Jonah Godina, Derebe Carr, Kevin Nava, and Aleksandr Krikov, all within 10 seconds, with Jake Cruz (KWU) and Brayden Marcotte (USM) rounding out the top 10.
The next 11 season best performers have all run under 26-minutes for the 8-kilometer distance. USM has four (Prince Ntozo, Camden Backman, Mohamed Elgossy, Cody Ford), Kansas Wesleyan has three (Ty Davidson, Austin Schaeffer, Ethan Ochana), Evangel has three (Blake Smith, Ethan Smith, Nathan Hawbaker), and McPherson one (Brian Fackert).
Chasing individual NAIA qualifying spots outside the NAIA National qualifying teams (i.e., two automatic teams plus six individuals in the top 20 if 12 scoring teams finish, but only one automatic team and four individuals in the top 15 if less than 12 teams score) will likely be Evangel University's trio of B. Smith, E. Smith, and Hawbaker along with McPherson's Fackert, Bethel's Marcus Fiedler and Asa Johnson, Friends' Briac Ybanez along with Bethany's Levi Pauley and Sterling's Daryen Jefferson.
It is evident that everyone is again chasing the Spires' men in the team title race. With nine runners among the KCAC's top 15 season best times and running on their home course, it would take a mighty effort to keep the Spires off the top spot on the podium again. Kansas Wesleyan appears to have sufficient up-front depth to hold off Evangel in the battle for any second KCAC berth in the 2025 national championships in Florida in two weeks.
The USM Spires' current streak of 12 straight KCAC team titles rank second only to Southwestern College's string of 31 consecutive team titles from 1980 to 2010.
2025 KCAC Runners of the Week:
9/08 Aleks Krikov (Saint Mary) – USM Sunset Showdown
9/16 Ethan Montgomery (Evangel) – Queen City Invitational
9/22 Ethan Montgomery (Evangel) – MSSU Southern Stampede
10/06 Damion Jackson (Kansas Wesleyan) – Mount Mercy Seminole Valley Stampede
10/13 Derebe Carr (Saint Mary) – Allen CC Firestarter
10/27 Kenneth Howell (Saint Mary) – Doane/College of St Mary Blazing Tiger Classic
