TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A clan of Warriors from the Corban University Men's and Women's Cross Country programs are in northern Florida for the 2025 NAIA National Championships, where nine men and one female runner will have an opportunity to vie for individual national champion titles and All-American accolades during the early morning race times. All-American honors are presented to the top forty individual finishers in each race, while team scores will only be available for those who qualified at least six runners into the national field either via conference race results or at-large bids. The women's race will begin at 8:30am ET/5:30am PT on Friday morning, while the men will begin an hour later at 9:30am ET/6:30am PT.
"In terms of Abby's race, we're really excited for her and think she's going to do awesome," began Warriors' associate head coach Stuart Eagon when asked to discuss his lone runner in the women's championship tomorrow morning. "She's had a great last couple weeks leading up to tomorrow. We got to preview the course a bit today and love the layout. There are some little hills on it that are something we're going to have to pay attention to, but there's a lot of downhill on the course. It's probably going to be blazing fast at the start with about two-thirds dirt and one-third grass, and fortunately we're running in the morning so it's not going to be super warm. Should be in the sixties at race time for both Abby and slightly higher for the men."
Following the first All-Conference finish for a Warrior aboard the women's cross country team since the 2020 competitive season, senior Abigail Oosterhout has a solid projection to become the first All-American in program history tomorrow morning in Tallahassee, as she enters the 492-woman field with the 33rd best time recorded across the country to date. At the Linfield George Oja Invitational, she clocked in at 21:42.9 which ended up being the fifth best time by a CCC runner this season and the single fastest time by a Navy and Gold runner in the women's 6k ever, besting Hannah Clarizio's 2018 record by nearly four seconds.
Oosterhout has been the leading force for the Corban women's program all season long, finishing as the top Warrior in every meet thus far and her 22:13.5 at the 2025 CCC Championships resulted in a top five all-time finish (6th) for a Warrior. With one final race remaining in Oosterhout's decorated collegiate career, she's looking to add one final accolade to her trophy case in what will be a historic year to remember for Warrior Nation.
"We're just very blessed to be here and to be able to run on amazing course where they're hosting the world cross country championships," detailed Eagon when asked to discuss the men's program preview. "We feel really blessed to be on this course. I think the guys are just excited to be here, and I think Jack has the opportunity to finish in the top five tomorrow and if he runs a smart race, he puts himself in contention for finishing his season well. I think for the whole team, if we run smart races and we're bold about how we do it, the men can finish very highly as a team as well. We are looking forward to going out and having a lot of fun tomorrow."
The Corban men's program is competing as a team in the national championship meet for only the second time in team history, as they qualified with an at-large bid in the fall of 2023, which represented the first national meet appearance for three of the Warriors that will be competing in tomorrow's race. Leading the pack tomorrow will be junior Jack Gladfelter, who holds the sixth best time across the NAIA to date (23:49.7) and represents the fastest time for an 8k race in program history by just over four seconds. Gladfelter secured All-American honors in last year's national championship race with an eighth-place finish and enters tomorrow's meet as one of the top favorites to repeat as an All-American while contending for an individual national title.
Joining Gladfelter with All-Conference honors this season was senior Zander Moha for the second time in his collegiate career, as the Warrenton native has had his best season to date and enters the national championship meet with the eleventh fastest recorded finish in 2025 (24:12.8) following the George Oja Invitational. Moha will attempt to close out his collegiate career with an All-American accolade of his own among the nation's best cross country student-athletes.
Junior Braydon Lee (25:02.2), sophomore Bennet Mason (25:19.0), and freshman Logan Mason (25:44.8) round out the Warriors who are expected to finish for team scoring consideration in tomorrow's race based on season results, with senior Nathan Pfaff (26:42.7) and freshman Kai Kearns (26:47.5) representing the two Navy and Gold runners who will compete for the sixth if-necessary team scorer and individual placements. Freshmen Samuel Bonsell and Julius Pokorny are also on site in northern Florida as alternates should they be called upon early tomorrow morning.
Live results for tomorrow's national championship races will be made available by Primetime Timing, with results being tabulated throughout the early morning HERE. Fans can also watch live on the NAIA Network by clicking HERE.
Follow Corban Athletics:
Facebook l Twitter l Instagram l YouTube l Email
