KANSAS — With the 2026 KCAC Cross Country Championships approaching this weekend, the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) has released its official championship preview written by meet announcer, Carol Swenson, highlighting the teams and individual competitors preparing to take the course. Take a look at the championship preview as your No. 20 Spire men's team and the favorite No. 18 Spire women's team prepare to compete for conference honors with the Spire men looking to capture their 14th consecutive KCAC Championship!
The 2026 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) Cross Country Championships will be held Saturday, November 7. Hosted by Evangel University, the meet will be held at the Allison Sports Town facility
in Springfield, MO.
2026 KCAC Cross Country Championships Preview
by Carol R Swenson, Meet Announcer
The men's 8-kilometer race scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m. with the women's 6-kilometer race to start at 11:45 a.m. 2026 will mark the fourth season the women will contest the championship meet distance of 6-kilometers.
Evangel head coach Camden Sesna describes the course as follows: "The course consists of a 2k loop, completed three times for the Women's 6k and four times for the men's 8k. Unlike the course at the University of Saint Mary (previous site of the KCAC Cross Country Championships), it is primarily flat with no large hills. A couple minor changes in elevation, but nothing drastic."
"The open layout of the course makes spectating very easy," Sesna continued. "About half of each 2k loop is run on soccer fields, and the other half is on the adjacent land that we have been maintaining over the last 6 months. We think it has the potential to produce some very fast times!"
The top 10 finishers in the women's and men's races in the KCAC Championship Meet are designated All-KCAC, with the finishers in 11th through 20th places will be designated as All-KCAC Second Team.
Qualifying procedure for NAIA National Championships
In addition to determining the 2026 KCAC individual and team champions, the meet will serve as the KCAC qualifying meet for the 47th Annual Women's and 71st Annual Men's NAIA National Cross-Country Championships, which will be held November 20th on the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancouver, Washington. (Complete qualifying standards for the National Championships are below.)
For conferences with 12 or more scoring schools (five to seven runners finishing), two automatic team berths are given only if the second team is rated among the top 30 in the final regular season NAIA poll to be released Tuesday, November 10th.
In addition to the qualifying team(s), the top six (6) individual finishers not on a qualifying team and finishing among the KCAC's top 20 scoring finishers will also qualify for the NAIA National meet.
If 6 to 11 schools have scoring teams (at least five runners finishing), the conference will receive only one automatic berth plus four (4) individuals in the top 15 scoring finishers not on a qualifying team.
WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW
The 2025 conference championship found the Kansas Wesleyan women winning their first championships since 2013, breaking a string of five straight team titles by the University of Saint Mary. The Lady Coyotes placed all five scorers among the first nine finishers to edge the home standing Saint Mary women by five points (27-32).
Entering the season, the preseason NAIA national rankings had the University of Saint Mary women ranked #16, with Kansas Wesleyan sitting just two spots back at #18, and Evangel receiving votes.
Now, two months later, the University of Saint Mary has slipped to #18 while Kansas Wesleyan had recently climbed back into the rankings at #23 after falling out of the top 30. That is important because in order for the KCAC to have a second team qualify for the National Championships, the conference meet runner-up must rank among in the top 30 of the final NAIA poll on Nov. 10.
At the Blazing Tiger Classic on Oct. 24, the women of the University of Saint Mary placed fourth behind #1 Dordt, now #10 Benedictine,and #14 SCAD (Ga.) Savannah College of Art & Design, but ahead of ranked teams, #21 Mount Mercy (Iowa), Kansas Wesleyan, and #25 Doane, plus John Brown and College of Saint Mary (Neb.), who are receiving votes.
Three of the top 10 individual finishers from the 2025 KCAC Championships are eligible to return this fall, led by 3rd place finisher Kristin Hackney (Kansas Wesleyan) and teammate Micah Dickens, who was 9th, with Kadence Oehlschlager (Evangel) in 10th, the first non-Coyote/non-Spire across the finish line in 2025. Julianna Maxfield (Tabor) is the top Second Team All-KCAC honoree returning after her 12th place finish ahead of top Spire returnee Ava Klaassen (14th), along with Hailey Nordus (KWU, 15th). Makayla Little (KWU, 18th), Lexi Patterson (Friends, 19th), and Liv Lohf (USM, 20th) round out the 2025 All-KCAC performers eligible to return.
Kristin Hackney is the only two-time All-KCAC performers returning in 2026 after finishing 18th in 2024 prior to last season's 3rd place finish.
With four of their top nine finishers eligible to return from 2025, all of which were among the top 20 KCAC finishers and earned All-KCAC honors, early on Kansas Wesleyan would have appeared to be the favorite for the team title in 2026.
But now, entering the conference championships, it is the University of Saint which has eight individuals ranked in the KCAC's top 10 season best performances, so again the USM women appear to be the favorite to regain the team title they lost to Kansas Wesleyan last season. The Spire women took full advantage of the competition and course at the University of Minnesota Roy Griak meet in mid-September to post eight of the KCAC's top 10 times for 2026. The Blazing Tiger Classic, hosted on the Mahoney State Park course at Ashland, Nebraska, on October 24th was the site for six of the KCAC's top 15 season best marks.
While Serenity Desrosier Larson's (USM) 20:44.6 ranks as the conference's only sub-21 minute for 2026, Ava Klaassen (USM), Hackney (KWU), and Mesa Casper (USM) have posted season-bests under 23-minutes. USM's Shelby Lingle, Norah Watkins, Liv Lohf, and Kathryn Cameron, along with KWU's Makayla Little, round out KCAC performers with season-bests under 23:30.0. Only Hackney, ranked #3, and Little, ranked #7, breaking up the Spires' top eight.
Expected to battle for Second Team All-KCAC honors (top 20) finishes will likely be Lilly Richardson and Alina Arceo of Saint Mary, Micah Dickens and Delaney Bond of KWU, Rose Buck, Hannah Cribley, and Lexi Patterson of Friends along with Kadence Oehlschlager, Tessa Lovell, Adrianna McGregor, and Anna McCune of Evangel.
The University of Saint Mary appears to be the favorite for a sixth team title in seven years, with the bigger question being whether Kansas Wesleyan's front runners can score low enough to hold off Evangel's pack.
2026 Athletic Solutions KCAC Women's Cross Country Runners of the Week:
9/8 Lexi Patterson (Friends) – Wichita State JK Gold Classic
9/15 Kirstin Hackney (Kansas Wesleyan) – Queen City After Dark
9/22 Serenity Desrosier Larson (Saint Mary) – Roy Griak Invitational
9/28 Serenity Desrosier Larson (Saint Mary) – Gans Creek Classic
10/3 Juliana Maxwell (Tabor) – Bethel Muthama-Rogers
10/10 Serenity Desrosier Larson (Saint Mary) – Fort Hays Tiger Open
10/24 Serenity Desrosier Larson (Saint Mary) – Blazing Tiger Classic
MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW
Same song, 14th verse or same song, 5th verse! Nothing appears to have changed in the past 12 months as the University of Saint Mary and Kansas Wesleyan men will again enter the KCAC Championships as the favorites. Last year the Spires placed all seven (7) scorers among the first 16 finishers as they ran away with their 13th-straight KCAC team title with a score of 32 points, but Kansas Wesleyan, finishing second for the fourth straight year, narrowed the scoring gap to 12 points (32-44) with Evangel in third, 28 points back of the Coyotes.
Entering the season, the University of Saint Mary men were ranked #15 while Kansas Wesleyan's men were receiving votes and ranked #35. The Oct. 29 NAIA national poll found only the University of Saint Mary men ranked among the top 25, in the #20 position.
With most of the KCAC present, the Oct. 24th Blazing Tiger Classic saw the Saint Mary men finish fourth behind now #3 Southern Oregon, #13 Mid-American Christian (Okla.), and #17 Dordt, but ahead of Columbia College (Mo.), Benedictine, and Doane, each receiving national poll votes. It now appears the KCAC will need not only a unexpected upset KCAC performance, but some help to get a second team moved up into the top 30 in the final NAIA nation poll.
It appears the Spires of Saint Mary are set up for a 14th straight team win. The question is whether 2026 could be the year when Kansas Wesleyan or Evangel finally break through and end the Spires' title run? The Spires can return seven All-KCAC performers from last season including Derebe Carr (4th), Jonah Godina (7th), Kevin Nava (8th), along with Second Team honorees Brayden Marcotte (11th), James White (13th), Mohamed Elgossy (16th), and Austin Howell (18th). Kansas Wesleyan, counters with defending individual champion Damion Jackson and Ethan Ochana (10th), along with Evan Pearce (12th), Braulio Torres (15th), and Tytus Reed (19th), giving the Coyotes what appears to be the advantage over Evangel. Challenging for All-KCAC honors again this year will likely be Nathan Hawkaker (Evangel, 3rd in 2025) and Brian Fackert (McPherson, 5th), both of whom were two-event medalists at the 2026 KCAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Damion Jackson (KWU) returns as the only multiple-time All-KCAC honoree after finishing 8th as a freshman, 2nd as a sophomore, before winning the 2026 KCAC individual championship.
Looking at the KCAC's top performance list for 2026, Saint Mary teammates Austin Howell (24:52.0 ) and Derebe Carr (24:55.2) enter the championships as the only KCAC men with season-best times for the 8-kilometers distance under 25-minutes, both coming at the University of Minnesota's Roy Griak meet. Three more Spires, Landon Englert, Mohamed Elgossy, and James White also ran season bests at Griak, posting times between 25:09.5 and 25:11.4 to rank #3, #4, and #5 on the KCAC list ahead of the first non-Spire, Joaquin Miranda (Friends), whose season best of 25:19.0 came at the Blazing Tiger Classic. Brayden Marcotte (USM) ranks #7 with the KCAC's final sub-25:30 best (25:22.9), followed by McPherson's Brian Fackert, Kevin Nava (USM), and defending champion Damion Jackson (KWU) with times between 25:34.9 and 25:39.9, rounding out the 2026 KCAC's top 10.
With the possibility of Saint Mary having its all five scorers plus two pushers among the first 10 finishers of the KCAC meet, the battle for second and third in the final team standing will likely be decided by which team controls the Second Team All-KCAC spots, scoring positions 11 to 20. With USM possibly placing 10 non-scorers among the next 20 finishers, the battle for second place in the team race will likely come down to Kansas Wesleyan's Ethan Ochana, Evan Pearce, Braulio Torres, and Triston Cottone trying to hold off Evangel's Blake Smith, Chance Cunningham, Ethan Smith, Nathan Hawbaker, and Caleb Gamble. Not to be overlooked though, Asa Johnson and Marcus Fiedler of Bethel could turn out to be the "spoilers" for either KWU or Evangel by breaking up their packs.
The USM Spires men's current streak of 13-straight KCAC team titles ranks second only to Southwestern College's string of 31 consecutive team titles from 1980 to 2010. Odds are the Spires will make it 14!
2026 Athletic Solutions KCAC Men's Cross Country Runners of the Week:
9/08 Brian Fackert (McPherson) – Wichita State JK Gold Classic
9/15 Ethan Smith (Evangel) – Queen City After Dark
9/22 Austin Howell (Saint Mary) – Roy Griak Invitational
9/28 Derebe Carr (Saint Mary) – Gans Creek Classic
10/03 Asa Johnson (Bethel) – Bethel Muthama-Rogers
10/10 Joaquin Miranda (Friends) – John Brown Invitational
10/24 Joaquin Miranda (Friends) – Blazing Tiger Classic
