JOPLIN, Mo. – In its first 8k race of the regular season, the MACU Men's Cross Country team qualified for the NCCAA National Championships while five runners posted program top 10 marks.
Ashlyn Vasquez continued to improve her fifth-best 5k mark in MACU's record book in the women's race at the Missouri Southern Stampede being run at the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course on Saturday morning.
JOPLIN, Mo. – In its first 8k race of the regular season, the MACU Men's Cross Country team qualified for the NCCAA National Championships while five runners posted program top 10 marks.
Ashlyn Vasquez continued to improve her fifth-best 5k mark in MACU's record book in the women's race at the Missouri Southern Stampede being run at the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course on Saturday morning.
WOMEN'S RACE
- Distance: 5000-meters (5k)
- Number of Teams: 33
- Number of Finishers: 239
- Score/Place: 752 / 21st of 33
- Top Finishers:
- Team Notes:
- Overall as a team, Mid-America Christian finished the 5000-meter (5k) event with a time of 1:53.12, just barely missing the NCCAA team-qualifying standard by three minutes to place 21st out of the 33 teams competing at the meet.
- Ashlyn Vasquez once again led the charge for the Evangels, breaking her own 5k personal best time of 20:28.94 to reset the fifth-best spot in MACU's record book. Vasquez previously posted a 20:57.30 at the Rogers State Distance After Dark in Tulsa, Okla. on Sept. 4.
- Freshman Cora Eyler posted her first sub-23 minute time of her second collegiate 5k race as she bested her previous mark by 20 seconds with a time of 22:40.51 to place 185th and score the Evangels 154 points. Eyler's previous mark was set at the RSU Distance After Dark when she ran a 23:00.36.
- Jessie Foster-Anderson recorded MACU's third-best mark in the race after crossing the line in 22:53.69 while freshman Lisa Hernandez-Cruz scored MACU's fourth-best mark with a time of 23:20.41 to notch 169 points. It went down as her career-best 5k time, finishing nine seconds better than her mark at the RSU Distance After Dark.
- Freshman Londyn Medrano rounded out MACU's scoring marks with a time of 23:48.46, notching 175 points and setting her first 5k time after not competing in the RSU Distance After Dark.
MEN'S RACE
- Distance: 8000-meters (8k)
- Number of Teams: 26
- Number of Finishers: 268
- Score/Place: 283 / 11th of 26
- Top Finishers:
- Team Notes:
- With the meet being MACU's first 8k race of the regular season, the Evangels as a team already set an NCCAA team qualifying mark with its top five runners amassing a time of 2:09:41, shattering the NCCAA's auto-qualifying mark of 2:26:56.
- Heading into the weekend, the time is currently the fastest team time in the NCCAA, besting the previous mark of 2:12:24 set by Grace (Ind.) at the Indiana Wesleyan Twilight on Sept. 5.
- Competing in his first 8k race at MACU, sophomore Mohamed Zairi led all MACU runners with a time of 25:32.79, setting the third-fastest 8k marks in MACU's record book that sit only behind Jaden Rodriguez's times in last year's SAC Championship (25:16.10) and NAIA National Championship (25:31.80). Overall, Zairi netted the low score of 41 points with his 46th place finish.
- Junior Lucky Maila also impressed in his first 8k with the Evangels, turning in a time of 25:44.99 to place 57th overall and score 50 points for MACU. The mark sits just behind Zairi in fourth in the program's 8000-meter record book.
- Rodriguez was MACU's third-best finisher in the meet after he crossed the finish line in 25:53.29 to place 62nd overall and net MACU 55 points. The mark was his personal fourth-best 8k time in his two-year Evangels career and sits as the sixth-fastest 8k time in MACU's records.
- Sophomore Aidan Collins posted his career-best 8k time while also finding a spot in MACU's top 10 record book after finishing with a 26:14.58 to place 76th and tally 68 points. His mark officially goes down as the eighth-fastest time.
- Competing in his first race of the 2025 season, sophomore Alexander Pebeahsy finished right behind Collins in 77th place, scoring MACU 69 points with his career-best time of 26:15.58, the ninth-best mark in MACU's record book.
- Overall, Mid-America Christian as a team put together a very respectable showing against some top tier NCAA D-II, NAIA, and JUCO squads competing in the meet. The Evangels placed higher than NCAA D-II Oklahoma Baptist (12th, 334), Northwestern Oklahoma State (14th, 388), Newman (15th, 407), and Arkansas-Fort Smith (17th, 493).
- The Evangels also finished higher than the three other Sooner Athletic Conference teams competing in the race as College of the Ozarks (16th, 453), John Brown (18th, 497), and Nelson (22nd, 643) also competing.
UP NEXT
- Mid-America Christian will now have some time to rest and recover as the Evangels will prepare to compete in the John Brown Golden Eagle Invitational on Oct. 11. That meet will be run at Pollard's Field, the site of the 2025 SAC Championships. Race times still to be announced.
