OKLAHOMA CITY – For the second-straight year, the MACU Cross Country teams will be running in the NCCAA National Championships on Friday morning as the Evangels will be running at the Warsaw Community High School Cross Country Course in Warsaw, Indiana. The women's team will open the meet with the Division I 5k title run at 8 a.m. (9 a.m. EST) before the men's team will compete in the Division I 8k championship race at 9:30 a.m. (10:30 a.m. EST).

On the women's side, the Evangels will be competing for a team for the first time at the NCCAA Nationals after Gracie Sanders competed as an individual in the 2023 meet. MACU is coming off a fifth-place finish as a team at the Sooner Athletic Conference Championships at Eldon Lyon Park in Bethany, Oklahoma on Saturday.

Sanders will be setting her sights on a second NCCAA All-American honor after she earned the prestigious accolade with a sixth-place time of 19:13.3 during the 2023 national meet at the same course on Nov. 10. Sanders earned her second All-SAC honor on Saturday when she shattered her own MACU 6k record with a time of 23:07.5 to place third out of 73 runners.

On the men's side, MACU turned in a strong finish in the SAC Championship on Saturday, placing fourth out of 11 teams. Individually, freshman Jaden Rodriguez became MACU's first ever All-SAC honoree when he crossed the finish line in eighth place with a time of 23:16.1 to edge out OCU's David Boulanger by 0.2 seconds and just missed finishing in the top five by six seconds.

The Evangels competed as a team for the first time in program history at the 2023 NCCAA National Championships last season, placing seventh out of 12 teams as Mason Baker paced MACU with a time of 26:42.3, which at the time was the fourth-fastest 8k time in MACU's record book.