By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – Kemble, Mylander, Stockett.
 
It has been a familiar sequence of Northwest Nazarene names among the early cross country results this fall, with the trio finishing first-through-third among collegiate runners in each of the team’s first three events of 2025.
 
The most recent – and most impressive – occurrence came on Saturday morning in Monmouth, Ore., where that crew led the Nighthawks to a runner-up finish at the Mike Johnson Classic hosted by Western Oregon. NNU tallied a team score of 40 points, finishing just six points shy of No. 7 Chico State in second place among a field of 13 teams.
 
“We knew Chico and other GNAC schools would be there, so we wanted to bring our A game,” said NNU head coach Greg Mitchell, whose squad was named GNAC Team of the Week on Monday. “It is midseason so we didn’t back off at all, and I was quite pleased with how well they ran. They stuck their noses in it and it panned out really well. I don’t think we hit it out of the park, but we are very encouraged by the outcome for sure.”
 
Brody Kemble earned his third GNAC Runner of the Week award of the fall after claiming his third title, with teammates Grady Mylander and Ian Stockett right on his heels. Kemble clocked a time of 23:40.3 minutes on the 8k course, a whisker faster than Mylander’s time of 23:40.6 minutes. Stockett was next across the line in 23:54.8 minutes, giving NNU a replication of its 1-through-3 finish at both the Dr. Thad Scholes XC Classic in Twin Falls, Idaho on Sept. 5 and at the NNU Cross Country Invitational in Nampa, Idaho on Sept. 19.
   
“We had conversations his freshman year about his goals and dreams, and that was back when we placed ninth in the conference,” Mitchell said on Kemble, a fourth-year Nighthawk. “He bought into what we were trying to do and has done everything I have ever asked. Brody has been consistent and healthy, and he is very confident in himself but also in what we are doing as a program. He recognizes that the end (of his career) is in sight, and so the culmination of those goals and dreams is there for the taking. He is making the most of it. When he got here we were not a great team, and now we’ve got guys who are helping bring the team up to the top tier in the GNAC, region and the country. He wants to leave the program in a great spot.”
 
Mitchell’s recollection of Kemble’s freshman year in the fall of 2022 runs parallel to a ninth-place team finish by the Nighthawks at the GNAC Championships. The Middleton, Idaho, native was nothing more than a face among the crowd in his debut, placing 27th amid the lackluster team performance. Things began to change quickly however, as Kemble earned silver medals in both the 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters at the 2023 GNAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. He earned his first cross country all-conference accolade by finishing seventh in 2023, helping propel the Nighthawks up the team standings to fifth. Kemble capped a strong junior season in 2024 by taking home all-region recognition with a 20th-place finish at the 2024 NCAA West Region Cross Country Championships.
 
A spirited competition among NNU’s top three runners has been the key to the team’s early success, with Mitchell indicating that both Mylander and Stockett have the confidence to match Kemble’s performances. That was apparent on Saturday, when it took a comeback by Kemble in the closing meters of the race to edge Mylander. “Grady transferred from Utah State, but you would think he’s been here four years,” Mitchell said on the senior. “This is a special time for these guys, and they love pushing each other. There is no doubt Grady wanted to beat Brody – they got the best out of each other on the day.”
 
Mylander’s arrival in 2024 was in many ways the missing puzzle piece, as the Nighthawks climbed the ladder to a second-place team finish at the GNAC Championships. Kemble led the pack in 10th place, a season after earning his first GNAC gold medal in the 10,000 meters at the 2024 Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Early indicators from the 2025 fall season are that this has a chance to be Kemble’s best season yet, and the Nighthawks as a team proved Saturday they have the kind of depth to make them contenders at both the conference and regional levels.
 
Stockett meanwhile is in his junior season at NNU and has enjoyed a progressive career trajectory similar to Kemble’s. After taking 26th at his debut GNAC Championships in 2023, Stockett knocked on the door of an all-conference performance placing 14th last fall. He ran a key leg of NNU’s GNAC champion distance medley relay unit at the 2025 GNAC Indoor Championships, before hanging a silver medal around his neck after a runner-up performance in the 1,500 meters at the 2025 GNAC Outdoor Championships. Hinting he’s in top shape, Stockett’s time on Saturday was the fastest 8k of his collegiate career. “Ian is not content being our third guy, and we may see him at 1 at some point this season,” Mitchell said on the Nampa native. “His freshman year was a bit of a transition, coming from being a small school state champion in Idaho. He didn’t immediately hit the ground running, but he has bought in and he keeps working. He has beaten Brody on a couple occasions indoors.”
 
The Nighthawks run far deeper than the “Big 3.” Sophomore Neftali Menendez had a stellar 11th-place showing on Saturday, cruising across the line in 24:28.3 minutes for the best time of his young collegiate career. Freshman Christian Gump took 1:44.1 minutes off his time from the previous week to run 25:00.8 minutes and check in 31st in his third college race. Junior Asher Ingram, who was 17th at last year’s GNAC Championships, also had a productive showing in 36th place at 25:09.0 minutes last week. Senior veterans Micah Chi, Aaron Heberlein and Jonah Rau have each been on the roster since at least the 2023 GNAC Cross Country Championships as well. “All of these guys have the self-belief that they can do big things on any given day,” Mitchell said.
 
The Nighthawks will shift their sights to the latter half of the 2025 schedule, with the biggest meets of the season still ahead on the horizon. Next up is the prestigious Lewis Crossover on Oct. 11 in Romeoville, Ill., arguably the most competitive meet in the nation prior to the postseason. “Lewis will be a big test – a lot of the top teams from our conference and the nation will be there,” said Mitchell. “It will be a good way to judge how we do when the heat is turned up a little bit.”
 
NNU’s men have already come miles from the ninth-place GNAC finish Kemble’s freshman year. Their 73 points and second-place team finish in 2024 was the best the Nighthawks have done at the conference meet since winning the inaugural GNAC Championships in 2001. NNU went on to finish seventh at the 2024 NCAA West Region Championships last fall, the team’s best showing since taking fifth in 2011 and tied for its third-best team performance at regionals since joining the conference 25 years ago. “Brody’s M.O. is to take it from the gun, and it sets the tone for the rest of the guys,” Mitchell said. “It’s good for them and all the way back to our 18th guy they feed off that aggression and confidence. It is a bit of unchartered territory for these guys, but we are at a good point confidence wise. In the end they love each other, and it’s pretty cool to see them wanting to be the best. It is a pretty selfless group.”
 
Mitchell deserves as much credit as his runners do for the team’s turnaround in the distance department. He joined the coaching staff as an assistant in the fall of 2022 and is in his second full season as head coach of both the cross country and track and field programs. NNU’s men have hovered around the USTFCCCA cross country national rankings in the early

going, showing up as high as No. 22 in the 2025 preseason. After dropping outside of the top-30 last week, the most recent result should elevate the Nighthawks upwards when the newest results are released on Tuesday.
 
To bring home the program’s first conference title in a quarter century, NNU will have to overcome a Western Washington team that has won four of the last five GNAC men’s team titles including three in a row and is the top-ranked GNAC team at No. 16 in the national poll. The Lewis Crossover will mark the first time the two teams meet this fall, with Western Washington having won the team title in each of its first two meets of 2025. It will be an exciting lead into what figures to be one of the most compelling GNAC Championships men’s team races in the last several years.
 
“They don’t fear anybody,” Mitchell said on his group. “Whether or not they run as well as anybody is a different question – but when they toe the line, they don’t ever feel like they are in over their heads. Those experiences last year in cross country and in track have helped, and it has shown us that our conference is very good. Previous championships and big invitationals have formulated them and at this point the guys all have great self-belief and belief in their teammates.”