NAIA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Apalachee Regional Park | Tallahassee, Florida
5:30 a.m. PST Friday – Women's 6K
6:30 a.m. PST Friday – Men's 8K
Watch Live | Live Results | Program

ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon men's and women's cross country teams are both set to compete in Friday's NAIA Championships at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Fla.  

The No. 17-ranked Raider women begin their 6,000-meter race at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time and 8:30 a.m. local time, and the No. 10-ranked Raider men race 8,000 meters an hour later at 6:30 a.m. PST. 

The top-40 individual finishers in each race will be considered All-Americans. Both races will feature 36 full teams in addition to 84 individual qualifiers on the women's side and 74 on the men's. 

This is the first year both the men's and women's teams have qualified for the national meet since 2022, where both squads earned ninth-place finishes. It's also the second time in four years that the championships are being held at Apalachee Regional Park, with the last time also being in 2022. 

In last year's NAIA Championships, the Raider women finished 16th in the team standings behind three All-American finishes. The Raider men only sent Jalen Griego, who finished eight spots removed from All-America honors in 48th place. 

SOU WOMEN AT A GLANCE
Lineup (previous nationals finishes in parentheses): Alaina Casady, Alyssa Johnson (81st, 2023; 32nd, 2024), Ashley Jentzsch (266th, 2024), Emily Picard, Mercedes Harms (299th, 2023; 245th, 2024), Natalie Sandeen, Sophia Stubblefield; alternate: Kayla Gorchels

Notable:

• The Raiders finished second at the CCC Championships for the seventh consecutive year behind No. 3 College of Idaho. Alyssa Johnson repeated as the individual runner-up and became a three-time All-CCC performer, and Sophia Stubblefield earned her first after a 10th-place finish.
• Johnson looks to join Jessa Perkinson (13th, 2015; 3rd, 2016; 2nd, 2017) and Kayle Blackmore (24th, 2016; 26th, 2018) as the only multi-time cross country All-Americans in SOU women's history. She earned her first All-America honor after a 32nd-place effort in last year's NAIA Championships. 
• The Raider women are appearing at the meet for the 12th time and have qualified every season since 2014 – excluding the COVID year. Their best-ever finish was fourth place in 2018, when they produced two All-Americans, and all five of their scorers were top-82.
• Johnson is vying for an individual top-10 finish. She's run the eighth fastest time (21:05) in the NAIA this year for 6K.
• Ashley Jentzsch and Mercedes Harms are SOU's other two returners to the national stage. This year, Jentzsch ran a 6K personal best of 23:41 at the Highlander Invitational, and Harms ran a season best of 24:01 at the same meet. 
• Jessa Perkinson owns SOU's best-ever individual finish at the meet. She attained runner-up status in 2016.
• The Master's (Calif.) is the defending champion. Taylor (Ind.) is the pre-race favorite after holding onto the No. 1 spot in the Top 25 poll the entirety of the season. 

SOU MEN AT A GLANCE
Lineup (previous nationals finishes in parentheses): Carter Stedman, Gus Blank, Hayden Roth, Josh Hepner, Logan Huffman, Mason Weisgerber (51st, 2023), Trenton Abraham; alternate: Dominic Vaughn-Luma

Notable:

• SOU placed three runners in the top-7 but still placed second at the CCC Championships behind No. 6 Eastern Oregon. Carter Stedman (4th), Mason Weisgerber (5th), and Josh Hepner (7th) earned All-CCC honors. It was the first time they had three or more All-Conference performers since 2022. 
• The Raiders bring a near lineup of first-timers to the national meet, with Weisgerber being the only man in the rotation with experience. He placed 51st as a freshman in 2023 at Fort Vancouver. 
• Stedman owns the third fastest time (23:47) in the NAIA this year, and Weisgerber the fifth (23:49). Six of the eight fastest times in the nation belong to Cascade Conference runners. 
• Josh Hepner finished as the top freshman in the Cascade Conference after an impressive seventh-place showing at the CCC Championships, officially placing him on All-American watch. Were he to earn All-America honors, he'd be the first Raider in SOU men's history to accomplish the feat. 
• Two Raiders have won individual NAIA titles: Kelly Jensen in 1978 and Eric Avila in 2013. The last Raiders to finish top-10 were eighth-place Max Runia and ninth-place Eric Ghelfi in 2014.
• College of Idaho is the defending champion, but The Master's has held the top spot in the NAIA Coaches' Poll since the preseason.