FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (November 17, 2022) – The Northern Arizona University cross country teams will close out their season this Saturday as they compete in the NCAA National Championship meet in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The men's team are the defending national champions, winning the title in five of the past six seasons. They will be looking for their second three-peat, with the first coming in the 2016, 2017, and 2018 seasons. Last year's championship team scored a total of 92 points, with six of those runners returning for the team this season. NAU will be the team to beat on the men's side as they hope to continue building upon their dynasty.
The Lumberjack men saw a bit of a rough start to the season but are peaking at just the right time to be competitive on the national stage.
Nico Young and
Drew Bosley have led the team the entire way, finishing first and second at the NCAA Mountain Regionals last week. Only .1 seconds separated the two, as Young took the individual title with a time of 28:01.8. Young also took the individual title at the Big Sky Championships and has not finished outside of the top-5 at any meet this season. Bosley has also been a strong veteran presence for NAU, only finishing outside of the top-5 at one meet this season. He took second place behind Young at both the Big Sky Championships and the NCAA Mountain Regionals.
Senior
Ryan Raff will be competing in his last meet as a Lumberjack after being a solid contributor to the team this season. Raff has finished top-10 at three meets this season and has often been the third scorer for the team. He has been a member of three championship teams at NAU, running at the championship meets in 2018, 2020, and 2021.
The women's team is going into the National Championship meet after one of the best seasons in school history. They earned the highest ranking in school history after placing second at the Cowboy Jamboree. They shot up the national rankings to number 4, going on to finish ranked sixth in the final poll before the national championships. They earned yet another Big Sky conference championship and placed third at the NCAA Mountain Regionals to earn an at-large bid. The Lumberjack women will be looking to top their last appearances at the national meet in which they placed 23
rd last year, 11
th in 2020, and 14
th in 2019.
Elise Stearns has led the women in every race this season, winning the Big Sky individual title and not finishing outside of the top-5 in any race. Stearns' most impressive performance coming at the Nuttycombe Invitational, where the team saw a lot of the same competition they will be racing against this weekend. Stearns finished third at Nuttycombe, running a time of 19:57.5. Another strong contributor this season for the NAU women has been
Annika Reiss. Reiss placed sixth at the Cowboy Jamboree in the team's first look at the national course. She helped push the team to a second-place finish at the meet, in which they topped many top ranked teams.
Both teams enter the NCAA National Championships ranked highly. The men come in at number two, following only Stanford. The women are ranked sixth, following No. 1 NC State, No. 2 New Mexico, No. 3 Oklahoma State, No. 4 Notre Dame, and No. 5 Alabama.
The 2022 NCAA National Championships will be held in Stillwater, Okla. at The Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course on Saturday, Nov. 19. The women's race will begin at 8:20 a.m. MST, with the men's race following at 9:10 a.m. MST. The races will be broadcast on ESPNU, with coverage beginning at 8:00 a.m. MST. Live results from the race can be found
here.
Stay up to date with NAU Cross Country and Track & Field by following us on Twitter and Instagram.
