The Cavalier cross country team represented Montreat College in grand fashion yesterday in Vancouver, Washington. On a muddy and sloppy course at Fort Vancouver Historic Park, the Cavaliers were led by senior and four-time national championship qualifier Wilbourn Kosgei.

Kosgei managed to cross the finish line in 54^th place with a time of 26:10. This was Kosgei's highest finish at the national championship.

"We're really proud at the way Wilbourn raced today. He's more of a finesse runner, built more for the track, so I knew the footing would be an issue for him. But, he got into the top ten and twenty spots and held on for dear life," said Coach Larios. "This was a great way for him to end his collegiate cross country career. He was twenty-one seconds out of All-American, which at the national championship meant twenty-four places."

"This national championship trip was the best by far. With Nike as the sponsor, it felt like a great championship," said Kosgei. "The course however was the toughest, with the many sharp turns and muddy sections made it very demanding."

The 2009 men's NAIA national champion was Silas Kisorio from Oklahoma Christian in a time of 24:23. The men's team championship was won by Malone College with a score of 22 points; Malone won for the third consecutive year placing three runners in the top 10 and placing all five scorers in the top 16.

"One way how we determine our national championship performance is by comparing ourselves to our conference runners. Two weeks ago at the AAC's, Wilbourn and Ben Hall placed seventh and eleventh. Today, among our conference runners, we placed second and seventh. I felt our difficult course back home prepared us well for today's race. There were many muddy spots where runners were falling and many shoes were sucked right off runners' feet. All in all, I felt our guys did a fantastic job representing Montreat College."

Ben Hall also put together a solid performance by crossing the finish line in 27:27 in 202^nd place out of 323 runners.

"Ben managed to beat one solid Milligan runner and three very good Bryan College runners that beat him at the conference meet two weeks ago. I felt he stepped up big time on a day that many runners found it hard to do," praised Coach Larios.

On the women's side, California State San Marcos surprised many teams to take the team title with 137 points, just three points better than Biola University's 140 points. The women's individual champion was Justyna Mudy from Shorter College in a time of 17:30.

Making her national championship debut, Olivia Mills followed the guys solid performance from earlier in the day. Mills finished in 20:47, good enough for 216^th place out of 330 competitors.

"Olivia ran great. She was able to outrun four girls that beat her two weeks ago at the AAC's. On top of that, she ran her fastest race of the entire season on a course where many coaches felt was running 30 to 40 seconds slower," added Coach Larios. "I don't think she could have run much better for her first national championship."

The team will arrive back into Montreat College late Sunday and will take a few days off before preparing for a short indoor track season.