NAIA XC/TF 2024-25

naiaunderrated wrote:

East2West wrote:

Looking for a potential landing spot for my children, an incoming senior male (2:00/4:27) and sister one grader younger (2:26/19:40). Neither love cross but do it. They both recognize that a small school fits them academically and socially, so we are focusing on NAIA and small DII/DIII. They attend a public school, but we are a Christian home where our faith is important but it's not a non-negotiable. We live on the east coast but have family in the Midwest.

What programs are strong at developing solid mid distance talent? Looking for a coach/staff that looks at our kids as more than just potential results and point getters.

in terms of small Christian schools in the Midwest, Cornerstone has recently turned from being distance focused with multiple All Americans in the 5k and 10k to a more Mid D focused program.
men's team has had great success mainly in the 800m with earning all American honors in the 4x800 3 seasons in a row with 2 top 3 finishes this past outdoor and indoor seasons without having a single 800 all American which attributes to their depth and development of athletes. They also have 12 running 2:00 or faster this indoor/outdoor season:
9/12 1:58, 6/12 sub 1:55, 3 guys sub 1:53
the women's team also had a great showing from their 800/1500 group with 10 girls running sub 2:30 and 7 5:00 and below in the 1500, most being underclassmen.
5/10 sub 2:20, 2/10 sub 2:15, 3/7 sub 4:50
The women's 4x800 had a surprise run for a 5th place finish at outdoor nationals after not making it out of prelims during indoor, adding stud freshman Emma Steele who ran 2:13 in the open 800 was probably responsible for that leap.

overall, small and Christian school that doesn't have much in terms of facilities to recruit with but has shown that the coaches can develop mid d athletes that weren't good enough for d2 or bigger naia schools.