The Azusa Pacific men’s cross country team are now NCCAA national champions after beating Ronalds Wesleyan by three points.
Courtesy: APU Sports Information
For the first time in program history, Azusa Pacific’s men’s cross country team is the national champion.
Saturday, Nov. 16, the cross country team ran the NCCAA Nationals race in Cedarville, Ohio. The men finished with a score of 84 points, only three ahead of runner-up Roberts Wesleyan. The top three finishers for the Cougars all placed in the top 15, starting with junior Peter Buscheck in fourth (25:54.72), sophomore Aaron Potts in seventh (26:05.89), and sophomore Ryan Phillips in 15th (26:17.86).
“In my 10 years, this is one the best races I have ever had any one of my teams run. They definitely all put it together today, it all came together on the right day,” head coach Preston Grey said. “It’s hard to get five guys all having their best race on the same day, so to do that and just barely win it, three points was really close; we were actually really nervous and we didn’t quite think we had it. We thought we got beat by a couple, but to see the results was pretty exciting.”
The men did not meet expectations in the PacWest Conference Championship race on Saturday, Nov. 2, finishing in third place. They redeemed themselves in the Nationals race, winning the program’s first national championship and the 49th national championship in APU athletics history.
“It’s great to get one for the men. We’ve had a second -place finish in the NAIA back in 2008, a third-place finish, a fourth-place finish; we’ve been up there a number of times, but we’ve never quite had a team get all the way to the top, so it’s definitely nice to get one,” Grey said. “I know we’re known more as a track school than a cross country school, so it’s good for these guys to take care of that end of the spectrum too.”
Grey said he and the other cross country coaches view this year and last year as one group acting as the “bridge” between the NAIA and NCAA Division II.
“They’re bridging the gap on that tradition, and we’ve constantly tried to raise the bar and create an atmosphere where we can contend for the Division II level and raise that standard,” Grey said. “They’ve done a great job of embracing that and taking that far higher. I think the effects of this will be felt years in the future, and this group will leave a great impact.”
Buscheck said the men’s team was ecstatic to get this historic win in Nationals.
“The men’s team is ecstatic, satisfied and happy that all the hard work has paid off and that we were able to have a clutch performance at the end of the season when it mattered most,” Buscheck said.
According to Buscheck, when the men’s team finished sixth in Nationals last year, he guaranteed the rest of the men on his team they were going to come back and win it all the next year. They took this guarantee seriously and came through.
When Grey broke the news to the team, he kept them in suspense.
“After the race, when Preston told us the results, first he told us that Roberts Wesleyan scored 87 points and we were like, ‘Aw, shoot,’ because we thought we scored about 90 points,” Buscheck said. “But he said, ‘They scored 87 points, and you guys scored 84 points.’ After that, we all went wild, jumping around, running around and it was a lot of fun — it makes all the hard work worth it.”
The women’s cross country team landed in second place under Roberts Wesleyan, falling short of defending their national title. Senior Sarah Higgens was the top performer, finishing sixth (18:33.05), sophomore Reika Kijima finished 11th (18:44.67), junior Kristie Sikma finished just behind Kijima in 12th (18:49.17) and freshman Kylie Betts finished 14th (18:54.23).
“I think as a team, we were a little disappointed. We definitely wanted to win it and thought we had the ability to do it. Roberts Wesleyan ran a great race,” said Grey, who also coaches the women’s team. “I think we ran a solid race, but there were some spots we could have done a little better.”
The Cougars will officially begin competing with NCAA Division II teams next season. Grey believes the team can continue to make history in this program and said the number one goal next year is to quality for NCAA Nationals.
“It may be the first opportunity for an Azusa Pacific team to qualify for NCAA Nationals and we want to be one of those first teams to go and do that,” he said.
Regardless of the outcomes on both the men’s and women’s sides, Grey said he is happy with the season’s turnout and all of the hard work both teams put in.
“We have nothing to hang our heads about this year,” Grey said. “It wasn’t a perfect year, we’ve had our ups and our downs, but the groups worked really hard and they represented Azusa Pacific well. I think they have a lot to be proud of.”