The Cornerstone University Men’s Cross Country team made the most of their first trip to the NAIA National Championships, earning an eleventh place finish, just three points away from the top ten.
Rain fell most of the week leading up to the race leaving the 8,000 meter the course at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park soggy with several very muddy spots in the first two miles.

From the start, the Golden Eagles positioned themselves well in the 28-team, 255-man field. Senior Derek Scott reached the mile mark in 4:47 and in the top fifteen with Wes Muller and Drew Collette about twenty seconds behind.

By three miles Scott had worked his way up to eighth with a 14:48 split. Collette and Muller were side by side in 15:44 with Luke Owens and Zach Ripley together at 16:00.

Over the final 1.96 miles, Scott dueled back and forth with David Wambui of Simon Frasier University. Derek prevailed in the final 200 meters finishing seventh in 24:56, to earn his first Cross Country All-America honors.

Collette found himself stuck in the middle of a group of six in the last fifty meters and somehow threaded his way through to reach the finish line in 26:15.05, 79th overall and 59th in the team scoring. All six runners finished within 1.4 seconds. Muller was just three seconds back placing 63rd / 86th.

Owens put together a great last mile and a strong finishing kick, clocking 26:47 for 122nd / 91st. Ripley completed the team scoring in 27:03 in 147th / 106th.

Seniors, Josh Modert and Todd Smith finished their collegiate cross country careers in 28:10 (219th / 161st) and 29:46 (251st / 187th) respectively.

Virginia Intermont defended their 2005 title, winning with 67 points. Cornerstone scored 326, three behind Cedarville and nine away from Cal State San Marcos.

“At the beginning of the season, our ultimate goal was to be a top ten team at nationals,” said coach, Nate Van Holten. “We came into this race still not totally healthy, but better than we were at regionals.”

“We were confident we could do better than what we were ranked [18th in the final poll], so the emphasis was on seeing how close we could be to the top ten,” said head coach, Rod Wortley. “Last night we told the guys that since this our first time qualifying the team for nationals it was up to them to define how that first time would be remembered. I’m extremely proud of what they accomplished.”