Park鈥檚 Mehl, Walker and Brecheisen to run in NAIA Cross Country Championships
PARKVILLE, Mo. — The Park University cross country program has three qualifiers for the 2024 NAIA Cross Country National Championships on Friday, November 22 in Columbia, Mo.
For the men鈥檚 squad, Lukas Mehl and Cayden Walker will represent at nationals hosted at Gans Creek Cross Country Course. Park women鈥檚 cross country will send Lily Brecheisen to compete as the third individual qualifier.
Brecheisen is the first women鈥檚 cross country individual to qualify for nationals since Allison Gibson during the 2020 NAIA National Championship.
While on the subject of history in qualifying for the national championship, it鈥檚 been since 2020 that Park sent individuals from both the men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 cross country teams in the same year, as Nathan Straubel also accompanied Gibson for the men鈥檚 cross country championship.
You would have to go back to 2017 when Park sent multiple individual qualifiers to the national championship, as Nicholas Rotich, Christian Skinner, and William Henry all represented Park at the men鈥檚 cross country national championship.
Mehl and Walker, were neck-and-neck at the 2024 Heart Men鈥檚 Cross Country Championship, placing 5th and 6th for Heart First Team All-Conference awards. They both ran their collegiate bests, as Mehl, the sophomore from Wuerselen, Germany, ran a 25:05.4 and Walker, a freshman from Gypsum, Kan., clocked a 25:06.9.
For Mehl, this is his second go around at NAIA nationals, qualifying at the 2023 national championships his freshman year.
Brecheisen, another freshman, put up a Heart All-Conference Honorable Mention performance at the Heart championship for 14th in a time of 23:09.7 in the women鈥檚 6k. The native from Baldwin City, Kan. earned her personal best time to send her to her first women鈥檚 cross country national championship.
The NAIA National Championships begin on Friday, November 22 with the men鈥檚 8k at 10:30am and then the women鈥檚 6k at 11:30am.
This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.