Lukas Mehl, Cayden Walker and Lily Brecheisen represent Park well at 2024 NAIA Cross Country Championships
PARKVILLE, Mo. — The Park University cross country program had a pair of men’s runners and one female runner in the biggest race of the year at the 2024 NAIA Cross Country National Championship in Columbia, Mo. on Friday.
Both First Team Heart All-Conference runners are coming off of personal records at the Heart Championship and managed to race within the top half of the field at nationals.
Lukas Mehl, in his second national championship appearance, crossed the line with a time of 25:22.3 for 134th. He was 1:34 faster than his time at nationals his freshman year and was the fourth fastest competitor from the Heart of America Athletic Conference in today鈥檚 meet.
Cayden Walker has shown some real promise, as the freshman from Gypsum, Kan. was right on pace with his teammate with a 25:27.7 today for 148th place. This was his second best race of the season and in his third time running Gans Creek Cross Country Course this year he shaved off 26 seconds from his previous best there.
Lily Brecheisen has been a leader of Park鈥檚 women’s team the entire season and showed out at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship with an All-Conference Honorable Mention performance.
Taking her shot at nationals for the first time in the freshman鈥檚 career, Brecheisen ran a 24:40.0 for 267th. This is her second fastest 6k time of the season.
The Baldwin City, Kan. native also brought back Park women鈥檚 cross country to the national championship for the first time since 2020-21.
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.