Liberty Cross-Country Claims Both Men’s and Women’s Conference USA Crowns

Liberty University’s Men’s and Women’s Cross-Country teams geared up for a championship fight Nov. 2 in Oxford, Alabama, in a race featuring over 80 runners and 10 different universities. In an astonishing turn of events, both units claimed victory and the conference crown, giving the Flames a successful sweep. 

The Lady Flames were up first to begin the weekend. After placing 21st in the pre-nationals, they had to work hard to clinch the title. The race was a 6-kilometer run, just under 4 miles. Middle Tennessee entered as the favorites, but the Lady Flames were not intimidated by the Blue Raiders or any of the other schools involved. 

The race began with every runner lined up side by side. Once the command was given, the runners launched from the start, trying to pull ahead of their competition. Liberty had five of its runners in the top 10 early on. The top eight stayed in a tight pack as they pulled away from the rest of the field and crossed the first and only checkpoint. 

Of the eight runners at the front, freshman Allie Zealand was fighting hard for the lead against Middle Tennessee’s sophomore Odilia Jepchumba, while redshirt senior Adelyn Fairley followed behind in fourth. Junior Isabela Ross, redshirt sophomore Ava Gordon and redshirt senior Marie Hostetler made up positions seventh through ninth for Liberty. 

As the race was coming to a close, Jepchumba began to pull ahead, Zealand was under pressure from UTEP’s senior Ruth Jerubet and Fairley was starting to lose pace.

“When I came through the 4K, I started doubting myself, but I saw Coach Isaac (Wendland) and my husband Bart cheering me on,” Fairley said. “It kind of woke me up, and I realized I can do this. I kicked it in and passed the girl I was following and got second.”

The encouragement helped give Fairley the boost she needed, and she overtook both her teammate and Jerubet to earn second place in individuals. Zealand finished third while Ross improved to sixth by the end of the event. Hostetler and Gordon finished eighth and ninth, giving the Lady Flames a dominant team win in the championship with 26 points compared to Middle Tennessee’s 94. (Cross-country scoring is based on who has the lower score.)

“Especially in championship racing, you can’t expect anything because people will go out slow at the beginning and will kick hard at the end,” Fairley said. “You’ve got to go in with the mindset that anything can happen. There’s a lot of variables in cross-country.”

The men’s race occurred one hour after the women’s. It took place on the same course, only the distance of the course was extended to an 8K. The race started similarly to the women’s, with over 80 runners side by side as the men prepared to fight for a title.

Sam Houston took an early lead individually, but by the first checkpoint, Middle Tennessee’s freshman Allan Kiplagat had taken the lead. Liberty senior Nicholas Kiprotich kept up with Kiplagat, and the next Liberty runner, senior Tristian Merchant, held his own in ninth as he fought for breathing room in a congested pack. Middle Tennessee was in the lead overall at this point, and the Flames knew they would have to pull together if they wanted to win the title. 

“The past two weeks, we focused on controlling our environment. We treat practice like a championship culture team,” Wendland said. “We knew Middle Tennessee would be really good, but as a team, we talked about not caring about Middle Tennessee but controlling our environment for the first 5K. The last 3K, we raced. They closed really hard in the last 3K.” 

By the second checkpoint, Kiplagat was starting to build a wide gap ahead of second place, but the Flames were pushing their way into the top 10. Merchant had moved his way up to sixth. His fellow teammates, senior Nathan Moore and redshirt junior Jack Cottrell, were fighting to break into the top 10. 

By the end of the race, Merchant pushed his way into third place while Kiprotich and Moore scored seventh and eighth place. Cottrell finished just outside the top 10 in 11th with fellow Flame redshirt senior Kyle Harkabus finishing in 17th. This gave Liberty just enough points to overtake Middle Tennessee overall and win the men’s championship, with the final score being 46 to 48. 

“It felt good to finally have a race where we were all content at the end and executed how we are supposed to execute,” Merchant said. “The whole race I was saying, ‘God, help me.’ I was saying it a lot throughout the race.”

The Liberty Cross-Country teams’ next meet is the NCAA Division I Southeast Regional Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Nov. 15 at 10:30 and 11:30 a.m.

Warden is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion.