By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

KENOSHA, Wis. – The Great Northwest Athletic Conference was well represented on Saturday morning at Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course, with strong finishes on both the men’s and women’s sides at the 2025 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
 
The Western Washington men finished in ninth place among the field of 34 teams competing, checking in with a team score of 373 points. It was the Vikings’ fourth-consecutive appearance at the national meet and 15th overall on the men’s side since the conference was formed in 2001. It marked the fifth time in that time span that WWU finished in the top-10 nationally, with the other four coming in succession from 2008-11 (10th, 4th, 9th, 10th).
 
Leading the way for the Vikings was junior Jared Alderfer, who finished in 55th place with a time of 30:58.7 minutes. Fellow all-conference runner Jonah Billings was right behind, crossing the line in 56th place at 30:59.2 minutes. WWU received key contributions from both George Fernandez and Sten Brakstad, who were the next two runners across the line. Fernandez placed 86th in 31:27.6 minutes and Brakstad finished 88th in 31:28.5 minutes.
 
Rounding out the group of competitors for WWU were Logan Werner in 141st place (32:08.9 minutes), Spencer Zeljak in 143rd place (32:09.2 minutes) and Will Henry in 184th place (32:30.4 minutes).
 
The Alaska Anchorage men wound up 16th on the team leaderboard with 456 points, marking their best finish since taking eighth as a team in 2018. It was the Seawolves’ GNAC-record 16th men’s team appearance at the NCAA Championships, with its best-ever performances being third-place national finishes in 2012 and 2015.
 
UAA was fueled by a pair of All-American performances from senior John Peckham and junior Ty Elliott. Peckham, the GNAC champion, capped his stellar 2025 campaign by finishing in 25th place with a time of 30:27.0 minutes. Elliott followed in 38th place, garnering his first All-American honor with a time of 30:43.0 minutes. Also finishing in the upper-half among the field of 262 men’s racers was sophomore Benjamin Browning, who took 129th place in 32:02.4 minutes in his national meet debut.
 
Ethan Ackroyd finished in 151st place in 32:13.6 minutes and Matt Rongitsch checked in 181st in 32:30.1 to each also finish in the top-200 for UAA. Anthony Porter and Samuel Roy also made their national meet debuts, finishing in 217th (33:00.4 minutes) and 243rd (33:45.8 minutes), respectively.
 
The GNAC was also represented on the men’s side by Northwest Nazarene, which made its first-ever men’s team appearance at the national championships. The Nighthawks finished in 20th place, totaling 541 points in their NCAA Championship debut. The team was led by its usual trio of stars on Saturday, with seniors Brody Kemble and Grady Mylander and junior Ian Stockett all finishing in the top-100. Kemble clocked a time of 30:51.7 minutes, just missing out on All-American status by finishing in 47th place. Mylander turned in a time of 31:04.8 minutes to place 63rd, and Stockett followed in 31:26.0 minutes for 83rd place.
 
NNU’s lineup also featured Asher Ingram in 189th place (32:34.3 minutes), Micah Chi in 227th place (33:12.1 minutes), Aaron Heberlein in 230th place (33:19.5 minutes), and Neftali Menendez in 233rd place (33:26.7 minutes).
 
Also representing the GNAC was Alaska’s Dexter Delaney, who earned an individual berth into the championship race. The GNAC Freshman of the Year clocked a 10k time of 32:02.5 minutes, finishing in 130th place on the leaderboard. He became the first Nanook men’s cross country runner to represent the program at the NCAA Championships.
 
Wingate won the men’s team national championship, accumulating 62 points to hold off runner-up Adams State by nine points in the final standings. It was one runner from each of those teams who fought it out down the final stretch, with ASU’s Kidus Begashaw running 29:38.8 minutes to win the national title three seconds ahead of Wingate’s Antonin Saint Peyre (29:41.8 minutes).
 
On the women’s side, the conference was represented by Western Washington which placed 18th among a field of 34 in the team standings with 470 points. It was the third year in-a-row that the WWU women earned a national championship team berth. The Vikings’ best-ever women’s national finish was sixth place in 2015.
 
Ella Edens was the top runner for WWU on Saturday, finishing in 83rd place with a 6k time of 21:39.9 minutes. Three other Vikings also finished in the upper half among the field of 263 competitors. GNAC Newcomer of the Year Sabrina Colbert checked in 101st with a time of 21:49.9 minutes, Emmy Kroontje was 118th in 22:02.4 minutes and Jill Philbin finished 119th in 22:03.0 minutes. Senior Alexis Parker, the GNAC individual runner-up, clocked a time of 22:13.2 minutes for 138th place and Laura Halsell crossed the line with her in 22:13.8 minutes for 139th place. Capping off a strong freshman campaign for the Vikings was Cecilia Villagomez Edvalson, who took 172nd place in 22:30.0 minutes.
 
Rachael Watkins of Simon Fraser was the top individual finisher for the conference on Saturday, crossing the line in 49th place with a time of 21:15.2 minutes. It was the second-straight top-50 finish for Watkins, who took 35th place at last year’s national championship meet. Also representing the league as an individual was GNAC champion Maya Ewing of Seattle Pacific. Making her national championship debut, Ewing ran a time of 22:06.4 minutes and finished in 127th place.
 
Grand Valley State took home the women’s team national title, posting a score of 65 points to narrowly-edge runner-up Colorado School of Mines by just four points. Tristian Spence of Adams State was the women’s individual champion, running a time of 20:11.0 minutes to beat runner-up Grace Strongman of Mines by six seconds.