Taylor (Ind.) Women, Dordt (Iowa) Men Win NAIA Cross Country Titles In Florida

By David Woods for DyeStat

Lina May had such an undistinguished Southern Mississippi career, she never qualified for an NCAA championship nor finished higher than third in a Conference USA race.

Addy Wiley, by contrast, is the fastest miler in high school history.

May ran knowing that, and ran away to a national championship.

The William Carey (Miss.) senior built a big lead and never relented in the NAIA Cross Country Championships on Friday at Tallahassee, Fla.

May clocked 16:50.9 for 5,000 meters at Apalachee Regional Park, or 36 seconds faster than she ran on this course Oct. 7. Wiley, a Huntington (Ind.) freshman, was second in 16:58.9.

Both times were personal bests on the fast layout on a 44-degree morning. LIVE RESULTS

Top-ranked Taylor (Ind.) packed all five scorers in the top 20, separated by just 25 seconds, for 50 points. It was the lowest winning score since 1998. Defending champion Milligan (Tenn.) was second with 177 and College of Idaho third with 201.

May burst ahead as Wiley was content to run in the chase pack. May led by 12 seconds at the 2K, and gave up little of that gap.

“I just wanted to go out from the gun and run hard,” May said. “That’s how I like to do it. Just stay gritty and see who’s the toughest.”

Wiley never was close enough for May to hear footsteps.

“But I heard a lot of, ‘Go Addy! She’s closing,’ “ May said. “I know that she has a great kick, a 1,500 runner. I’m a 10K runner. I don’t have that kind of kick. I knew I had to stretch it from the beginning if I was going to make a move. I couldn’t leave it up to the end.”

May, a high school state champion in Mississippi, represented Southern Miss for four years. She decided to take a final season of eligibility at William Carey, a private Christian college. She said she was influenced to do so after a summer mission trip to India.

Wiley set a national high school record for 1,600 meters on June 11, paced by now-suspended Huntington coach Lauren Johnson. Wiley committed to Colorado but instead enrolled at Huntington after running in August’s Under-20 World Championships.

Wiley was attempting to become the Foresters’ third NAIA champion in four years.

The two champions, Hannah Stoffel and Emma Wilson, are suing the university in a case alleging sexual abuse and forcible doping. Stoffel and Wilson have asserted the NAIA should invalidate their performances because they were injected with unknown substances by former coach Nick Johnson.

Huntington fired Nick Johnson after he was arrested in December 2020 and charged with four felonies. The university replaced him his wife, Lauren, who was placed on leave last month in response to the civil lawsuit and an Indianapolis Star report on the allegations.

Sydney Little Light of Rocky Mountain finished third in 17:25.6 and Abbey Brennan of Taylor fourth in 17:28.3.

The NAIA title was the first for Taylor’s women. With individuals displaced, Brennan, Noel VanderWall, Ahna VanderWall, Audrey Brinkruff and Giovanna Domene were 4-6-9-12-19.

“They’ve got a lot of conviction,” Taylor coach Quinn White said after the Crossroads League meet. “They truly believe they can do what they’re doing. We’re not asking them to anything special. Just go out and use your talent, and that’s what they do.”

Dordt runs to first NAIA men’s title

You know the cliché about the journey, not the destination? Turns out the journey by the men of Dordt (Iowa) took them to the top of the NAIA podium.

“I told them last night, there’s nobody I’d rather be here than with this group of guys,” coach Nate Wolf said.

The No. 3-ranked Defenders had a separation of 12.4 seconds among their top four, and they scored a 98-116 victory over No. 1 Milligan, the defending champion.

The Master’s (Calif.) was third with 151. Indiana Wesleyan won a tiebreaker for fourth over St Francis (Ill.), both with 208.

Abraham Chelangam, a Ugandan freshman, gave Oklahoma City the individual champion for the fifth time in six years. Mark Shaw and Zouhair Talbi each won twice.

Chelangam ran the 8K in 23:41.9. Shimales Abebe, an Ethiopian-born 27-year-old who became eligible in May to represent the United States, was second for the third year in a row behind a teammate. Abebe’s time was 24:03.9.

Huntington’s Haile Stutzman was a surprise third in 24:05.0. He was third in the Crossroads League and 60th in last year’s NAIA nationals. Milligan’s Aaron Jones was fourth in 24:05.3.

For Dordt, Joe Anderson was 13th, Davis Tebben 17th, Peter Shippy 18th, Eric Steiger 23rd and Ethan Summerbays 45th. Scoring places were 11-14-15-19-38.

Shippy, who was 52nd at 3K, climbed 34 spots.

“We just came in with the underdog mentality,” Anderson said. “We knew if we had a good day and one of us hit that something special could happen. And Peter Shippy, he showed up for us.

“We moved together, and we made it happen.”

 Contact David Woods at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.