NAIA Cross Country Teams and Individual National Qualifiers Announced

The Heart of America Athletic Conference will be represented by Benedictine College's women's cross country team, the Grand View men's cross country team and 12 individual runners overall at the 2021 NAIA Men's and Women's Cross Country National Championships, announced by the NAIA this week.

Benedictine won its second-straight Heart Women's Cross Country Championship last Saturday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and earned an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship. The event will take place on Friday, November 19 in Vancouver, Washington.

The following six individual runners from around the Heart have also qualified to compete in Vancouver Washington.

To qualify individually, the NAIA takes the Top six finishers from the Conference meet that did not run on the NAIA automatic qualifying team (Benedictine) and finished 20^th or better in the conference meet. 

NAIA National Championship Individual Qualifiers from the Heart (Women's Cross Country)

Morgan Lawson | Grand View University

Kelsi Huhndorf | Mount Mercy

Ceyda Nazli | Grand View

Valerie Aceves-Power | Baker

Jessica Ertz | Mount Mercy

Mia Wilhoit | Baker

To view all of the NAIA Women's Cross Country National Qualifiers, please click here.

Grand View won its first-ever Heart Men's Cross Country Championship last Saturday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and earned an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship.

The following six individual runners from around the Heart have also qualified to compete in Vancouver Washington.

NAIA National Championship Individual Qualifiers from the Heart (Men's Cross Country)

David Mannella (Benedictine)

Radovan Kemboi (Central Methodist)

Dillon Grover (Graceland)

Vernon Trozzi (William Penn)

Nathan Straubel (Park)

Luke Godard (Benedictine)

To view all of the NAIA Men's Cross Country National Qualifiers, please click here.

To purchase photos from the 2021 Heart Cross Country Championships, please click here.