PORTLAND, Ore. – The Corban University Men's & Women's Cross Country team will toe the line tomorrow morning at the 2024 Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Championships, which will begin at 10am for the men's program and 11am for the women in their 8k and 6k races at the Rose City Golf Club, respectively. A prosperous return on their efforts throughout the season will see either the men or women qualify for the 2024 NAIA National Championships, which is scheduled to take place on November 22nd in Columbia, Missouri.
To view the 2024 CCC Championship program, click HERE.
"The CCC meet is a big deal, it is probably the best conference meet in NAIA," shared Corban assistant coach Stuart Eagon. "Tomorrow our men have the opportunity to go head-to-head with three of the top thirteen teams in NAIA. I believe the guys are ready. We are fully recovered from early season sickness and the guys have their legs at just the right time. We are ready to compete for God's glory and put forth our best tomorrow."
The CCC has representatives all over the most recent NAIA Top 25 polls on both the men's and women's courses, with The College of Idaho representing the top conference programs at No. 1 (men) and No. 6 (women) entering the CCC Championships tomorrow morning. Lewis-Clark State College has a pair of nationally ranked programs as well, while Southern Oregon University (women) and Eastern Oregon University (men) each hold one national ranking entering Friday's races. Until the most recent poll, the Corban men were firmly in the NAIA Top 25 yet dropped to receiving votes consideration after the final regular season races.
For the men, sophomore Jack Gladfelter look to once again impress at the CCC Championships, as he shocked the field with a fifth-place individual finish in 2023 to help power the program to a tie for third place overall. His 23.59.8 personal best at the Charles Bowles Invitational earlier this year leads the team and ranks second in program history for an 8k race, only trailing the 2023 individual conference champion Robert Swoboda by just over five seconds.
The men's squad will look from big performances by key runners over the 2024 regular season, beginning with junior Zander Moha who's been right behind Gladfelter a majority of the regular season. Following Moha in the Corban standings thus has been sophomore Braydon Lee, freshman Bennet Mason, and senior Forrest Cooley in a near replica of the team they sent to the national championships just over a year ago.
Coach Eagon continued with his conference preview analysis by stating, "For the women, we will be competing with a fragmented version of our original team to begin the season. We've lost four of our top six runners to injury since the summer unfortunately, but for those who are able to compete, we are excited to attack the Rose City course tomorrow!"
An injury-riddled regular season has the Warrior women's team optimistic as they field a full team for the first time since the opening meet in late August. Freshman Carrie Babcock has been the lone Corban student-athlete to compete in every race this year for the women's program, where she has since taken over the lead position with a personal best fit for the record books. At the final regular season race on October 19th in McMinnville, Babcock ran a 23:30.7 to lead the Navy and Gold, which is the 14th best time for a Warrior in a women's 6k race and first to break into the record book in 2024.
Babcock is joined by a handful of student-athletes ready to improve upon the program's 7th place team finish in 2023, including freshman Shaelee Killorn, senior Judah Koehler, and sophomore Rebecca Noordam who have all appeared in a handful of the meets that Corban participated in since their season began on August 31st. Newcomers in the form of freshmen Makayla Rose, Myana Stock, Haley Kline, and Emalie Lindberg will provide the team with the depth necessary to climb the leaderboards with a successful appearance in Portland tomorrow morning.
Coach Stuart and head coach Todd Bos have continued to raise the bar of standards for each of the two programs since 2021 and have no expectations to take a backseat in one of the most competitive conferences the NAIA has to offer for collegiate cross country.
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