Nick Askew

Pictured: senior Jack Gladfelter

Men's Cross Country 10/3/2026 1:04:00 PM Clayton Messerle, Assistant Athletic Director

Gladfelter Places Top Five, No. 8 Warriors Finish Tenth at Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational

SALEM, Ore. – Competing with a more complete lineup for the first time this season, the No. 8-ranked Corban University men's cross country team battled through a highly competitive field Saturday morning at the 51st Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational. Despite receiving strong performances from several of its top runners, the Warriors struggled to generate the team scoring depth needed to contend near the top of the standings, ultimately placing 10th among 23 scoring teams.

To view the complete results from the men's 8k race today in the heart of Salem, click HERE.

"Aside from Jack being led off course by the host pilot, we were without Braydon today and that played into our lower team finish than we expected to have," explained Warriors' head coach Stuart Eagon. "Be that as it may, I was pleased with Carson's performance in his collegiate debut, and I'm happy with how Caleb (Lakeman) did today, as he was running more of a tempo pace and he's trying his absolute best to keep himself striving towards improvement while remaining healthy. Overall, I thought we definitely struggled a bit as a team today, and we'll look to improve on these marks in our final regular season race in two weeks."

Corban finished 10th overall with 252 points in one of the premier meets this time of year in the Pacific Northwest. NCAA DI University of Portland captured the team title with 46 points, edging the University of Nevada (60), No. 2-ranked Southern Oregon University (131), and No. 4-ranked College of Idaho (132). The Warriors finished just ahead of Oregon Tech and were the fifth-highest Cascade Collegiate Conference team in the field behind the Raiders, Yotes, No. 18-ranked Northwest University, and No. 25-ranked Eastern Oregon University.

Senior All-American Jack Gladfelter led the way for Corban, turning in an impressive fifth-place finish in a loaded 8K field with a time of 24:15.8 despite being led off course by the pilot by about 75m, thus resulting in an extra 150m for him to run and between 20-25 seconds lost from his finishing time. Gladfelter was the third NAIA finisher in the race and the lone Warrior inside the top 25 competitors. Freshman Carson Buergey started off his true freshman season with a 31st-place finish and a time of 24:56.7, while redshirt junior Caleb Lakeman crossed 77th overall in 25:46.7. Junior Bennet Mason was Corban's fourth scorer in 94th place at 26:03.1, and sophomore Logan Mason rounded out the scoring five in 128th place with a mark of 26:32.8.

The race's top five finishers included Nevada's Austin Key (23:59.1), Southern Oregon's Mason Weisgerber (24:11.3), unattached runner Kgadi Monyebodi (24:11.5), Southern Oregon's Carter Stedman (24:12.8), and Gladfelter.

Also competing for the Warriors were sophomore Kai Kearns (27:23.5), sophomore Samuel Bonsell (27:39.7), sophomore Ethan DeyArmin (28:50.0), junior Talan Warkentin (29:05.5), sophomore Stephen Crover (29:25.4), freshman Wyatt Nickell (29:59.2), freshman Tristyn Burgeson (30:21.3), and senior Jamin Potloff (31:13.1).

While Corban received an elite performance from Gladfelter and saw Buergey emerge as a key contributor in his first collegiate race, the Warriors were unable to match the scoring consistency displayed by the teams ahead of them. Saturday's result provides a clear benchmark as Corban enters the final half of the season with conference and national championship aspirations still firmly in focus. The Warriors will look to tighten their pack and improve their scoring spread as postseason competition approaches.

Corban will return to action on October 17th at the George Oja Invitational host by NCAA DIII Linfield University at the Oak Knoll Golf Course, representing the team's final competition before the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championships in early November.