2025 NAIA XC Championship Review: Taylor Secures Title, Indiana Wesleyan Comes Out on Top, Jaynie Halterman Thrives (Again) & Jack Anderson Wins Gold

Responses via Miguel Zacarias

Questions, edits and additional commentary via Garrett Zatlin

The NAIA cross country season is officially a wrap, specifically the NAIA XC Championships which took place last Friday!

Sure, some aspects of the national meet were relatively predictable (i.e. the women's race). However, other aspects of the meet (specifically the men's race) gave us much more to talk about as far as surprises and unexpected developments are concerned.

Let's break down everything NAIA that we saw last Friday and attempt to make sense of the season finale chaos that took place in Tallahassee, Florida...

Men's Analysis

The Indiana Wesleyan men secured the NAIA team title by defeating The Master's men by 11 points. Who/what was the most crucial aspect of the Wildcats winning the title?

In what is the best-case scenario for any national team, the Wildcats all peaked at the perfect time. Not only did they execute great races as individuals, but they showcased a level of depth that we had not yet seen from their scorers all season long!

Josh Bainbridge led the charge, with him having one of the best races of his season, finishing in 8th place overall. Once the Wildcats unlocked their low-stick in Bainbridge, the rest of the team followed suit through brilliant pack-running with the rest of their top-five -- Grant Flora, Trenton Sweet, Braden Sweet and Hunter Wasnich -- all packing together to finish in All-American range. On paper, there wasn't a single flaw in IWU's lineup.

And although Indiana Wesleyan was more than ready to go head-to-head with The Master’s, they had a couple other benefactors working in their favor. The first being The Master’s was missing a key part of their five in Cedar Collins.

After a strong season opener, Collins was unfortunately unable to keep up any consistency, ultimately leading to him being left off The Master’s national team, altogether. That development, mixed with teammate Hunter Roy having his worst race of the season when it mattered most, truly put the Mustangs in a difficult position to confidently win.

Put simply, it was a perfect storm for Indiana Wesleyan.

What was your reaction to seeing the Rocky Mountain men snag 4th place, the final podium spot at the NAIA XC Championships?

Watching the Rocky Mountain men reach the podium made me realize just how underrated they were coming into the NAIA XC Championships.

As each race passed us by this season, we saw the Rocky Mountain men inch one spot higher in our TSR rankings. We felt like their ceiling was that of a top-10 team, although the next few squads ahead of them were making leaps and bounds. However, I should have known that it was only a matter of time before the Battlin’ Bears reached that same echelon.

John Spinti (23rd) was fantastic as a true low-stick, but it was Corbyn Svec (44th) and Justin Glass (49th) who bridged the gap to the rest of their scoring group, Zach Zwiesler (77th) and Caleb Tomac (88th). It wasn't flashy, but it didn't have to be -- it was a complete and balanced effort for the Battlin' Bears.

The craziest part is that none of the teams who Rocky Mountain beat had a legitimately poor outing, they just weren't as good as the 4th place podium team. The type of depth that the Battlin' Bears displayed was only rivaled by that of the Taylor men, and yet, they still got the better of the Trojans.

Overall, I feel a sense of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) for not having rooted for the Rocky Mountain men this past weekend.

Which men's team that finished outside of the top-four should be most pleased with their performance?

Trinity Western men must be ecstatic with their 9th place team finish!

Although they severely lack the depth that other teams carry (their fourth and fifth runners placed 183rd and 203rd), the Spartans truly make up for it with an elite top-three!

Yemane Mulugeta (3rd) was always going to serve as the Spartan’s superstar low-stick. However, David Mutai (18th) and Justin Kiplagat (27th) both had the important role of countering the major drop-off to the team's final two scorers -- and they did a brilliant job of creating a big enough cushion.

The Spartans owe a lot of their success to those two men, and even on a slight "off" day for Kiplagat, it didn’t keep them from breaking into the top-10 teams.

When I thought about Trinity Western, I saw them less as a team and more like a program with three great individuals. To my surprise though, it was these three men that functioned as support beams, rather than as the outliers of the team. No longer are they the team that hovered too far away from the top-10.

The inexperience of freshman Brogan Collins ultimately caught up to him at the national meet as he faltered to 6th place. Instead, his teammate, Jack Anderson, secured the individual title with Southern Oregon's Mason Weisgerber two seconds behind him. What was your reaction to seeing that result? In retrospect, should we have been more prepared for a result like this?

Is it a cop out to say that I should have known better? Admittedly, I wouldn't have expected Jack Anderson to take the win either, but to bet on a rookie over a veteran is a rookie move in-and-of-itself.

On a more serious note, it was hard not to bet on Brogan Collins! If you took one look at his race stats from this season, he only got faster each race, and even began to better his teammate Anderson at times.

Unlike the women’s side, the men had no reigning national champion which really left the top spot to anyone. Collins also didn’t run the Great Southwest Conference XC Championships while Anderson did, so with one less hard effort on his legs, it made sense to believe that this rookie standout could have been the slight edge he needed to become national champion.

Alas, experience will always trump a beginner, and sadly, this was the case for Collins. If we learned two things this season it’s that the veterans are simply the safer bet and, secondly, Brogan Collins has quite the career ahead of him in the NAIA!

Which men's individual All-American was the most surprising relative to expectations?

Easily, the most surprising performance was that of aforementioned Josh Bainbridge from Indiana Wesleyan.

If we’re talking about someone who arguably carried the Wildcats to first place, it’s this man. Sure, Bainbridge was always good against his NAIA counterparts, but never great. From the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge up until the Crossroads League XC Championships, Bainbridge fell just short of being seen as a true individual contender.

However, he never struggled this season and showed consistency throughout. Looking back, that ultimately culminated in a perfectly timed peak. For a runner who was predicted to finish far below the top 10, Bainbridge ran the race of his life. And if his 9th place finish wasn’t enough to satisfy him, he can now take the title of the Wildcat’s MVR (Most Valuable Runner).

Women's Analysis

The Taylor women secured the team title at the NAIA XC Championships, scoring 90 points to defeat runner-up Milligan by 19 points. Is there anything that the Buffaloes realistically could have done to defeat the Trojans for gold?

To be completely honest, I don’t think there was much more Milligan could have done to overtake Taylor.

All season long, the Trojans were the talk of the town. They were the top team coming back from last year. With a clear individual winner in Halterman, Milligan was going to have to play a game of catch-up.

Their great equalizer was individual runner-up Ellen-Mary Kearney. And no, this isn’t to say that the rest of the Milligan women didn’t play their part. If anything, the Buffaloes actually ran one of their strongest races of the year, which only speaks to the depth the Taylor women truly have on their team!

Truthfully, the biggest surprise was seeing just how close the scores ended up being. The Buffaloes swung for the fences, but it was always going to be a tough task taking down the Trojans.

The Dordt women took 3rd place at the NAIA XC Championships despite key scorer Corinne Braun having an "off" day. Per TFRRS, the Defenders return their entire top-seven for next fall as five of their top-seven in 2025 were considered to be underclassmen. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much of a threat do you view the Dordt women for the national team title going into next year?

From just looking at the NAIA XC Championship results, I’m going to go with a strong score of 9 out of 10.

Although they finished 3rd in the team standings this year, they have a really high ceiling looking ahead to 2026 -- granted that this team stays intact a year from now. As of now though, their depth is already stacked, and given another year for their young talent to mature, there’s no telling what sort of racers these women will be after their 2025 experience. 

Even so, the hardest challenge for any team trying to challenge Taylor is having a runner who can be at a similar caliber to Jaynie Halterman, at least scoring-wise. As long as the Trojans have a major low-stick in Halterman, it will be difficult for Dordt to take them down if even one of their runners has an "off" day.

If Dordt can continue to work off of the momentum that Liston created, along with a fully-firing Corinne Braun, then the Knights become really dangerous heading into 2026. If there is one team who can take down Taylor in 12 months time, then it is going to be the Dordt Defenders.

Which women's team that finished outside of the top-four should be most pleased with their performance?

The women of Marian (IN) had an absolute day at the NAIA XC Championships by finishing 6th overall!

Coming out of the Crossroads League XC Championships, Marian (IN) fell just below Grace College to take 3rd place. Yet, what was most surprising about this result was that Marian was only eight points back from a team who had been a solid top-10 squad all season long.

Was that the first indication that the Marian (IN) women were poised for something greater? Spoiler alert: it 100% was.

The Knights not only surpassed their fellow conference competition last Friday, but they blew out so many other teams. More than anything, this was thanks to the trio of Summer Rempe, Gracynn Hinkley and Lainey Roth who stepped up for their team by each cracking the top-100. Sure, Katie Woods (16th) and Kaelina Matthews (56th) were highly impactful, but the backend scoring stability was arguably just as important.

There was a noticeable absence in sophomore Claire Milam who served as an interchangeable second or third runner for Marian (IN) throughout the fall months. The manner in which that backend scoring trio showed up for their team is truly commendable. They deserve all the praise for their 6th place finish.

Taylor's Jaynie Halterman unsurprisingly cruised to the individual title at the NAIA XC Championships. If she were to theoretically move to the NCAA Division One level and race at the national meet, where would you project she finishes?

Jaynie Halterman is the NAIA’s golden girl, and to even think of her leaving the division feels like it would be a major, major loss.

Of course, if we're talking about theoretical scenarios... 

If we were to compare her times to those racing at the Division One level, then we’d have a fairly easy answer -- she wouldn’t be a contender, at least not among the top-five. That is by no means a knock on Halterman. If anything, that is an acknowledgement of the amount of talent being produced out of the NCAA Division One level!

However, if you're someone who likes to consider more than just times -- potentially greater resources at the D1 level, being consistently pushed more than she is in the NAIA and just being a flat-out great racer -- then there’s truly no telling how high her ceiling could theoretically be. 

And yet, even with all of that in mind, I think Halterman has to shift her focus from winning the NAIA XC Championships to someone who is simply trying to break into the All-American range at the Division One level.

Which women's individual All-American was the most surprising relative to expectations?

This is easy: Addison Liston of Dordt made the greatest jump and contribution at the NAIA XC Championships.

For someone who was only expected to barely break into an All-American spot, she surpassed all expectations by nearly finishing in the top-10! Her 12th place finish not only made up for the absence of Corinne Braun, but she even surpassed her teammates, Joy Koole and Adeline Crow!

Whatever Liston was saving in the tank this season, she made sure to leave it on empty for this year's national meet. She is no longer just a scorer for the Defenders, she has become their ace!

I can see a world where Braun and Liston become one of the most dangerous duos in the NAIA next fall. But before I get too ahead of myself, I’ll just focus on the present. From what I can see, the future is very bright for this current freshman, and there is plenty more to come.