°¼Ķ¹ŹÓʵ

Apr 20, 2023

Title is Icing on the Cake for Men's Cross Country

°¼Ķ¹ŹÓʵmenā€™s cross country claimed the 67th Annual NAIA Menā€™s Cross Country National Championship at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee in November.

°¼Ķ¹ŹÓʵmenā€™s cross country claimed the 67th Annual NAIA Menā€™s Cross Country National Championship at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee in November.

The win is Dordt's first national title in any team sport. It also makes the team the first in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) to win a cross country national championship.
Senior Joe Anderson had a sense that the team might place well, but he wasnā€™t exactly sure how well. ā€œIt takes everything coming together on that day to win a national title,ā€ he says. ā€œWe were blessed with our best race of the season.ā€

Before going to nationals, says Senior Eric Steiger, the team knew that they were one of seven potential contenders for the title. They had consistently ranked third or fourth over the course of the season, in part because other teams werenā€™t sure how good the Defenders were.

ā€œAs a team based in the Midwest, we donā€™t get the opportunity to race on many fast courses or with good weather,ā€ explains Steiger. ā€œIn addition to that, we donā€™t get to race many of the top teams in the nation. This makes it hard for people to understand how we would stack up against others. With these low expectations we really enjoyed being able to show what a gritty team from Northwest Iowa could do against the rest of the nation.ā€

Prior to the championships, the team trained hard. They spent the summer doing workouts and running 90 to 100 miles per week. Even on the morning of his wedding, Anderson ran 10 miles.

ā€œWe had quite a few guys who ran over 3,000 miles in 2022, and that culmination of aerobic development contributed to a successful season,ā€ says Steiger. ā€œCross country is unique because the only race that matters for us is nationals. So when we begin our training in June, it is with the focus and intent of performing well at a single race in mid-November.ā€

Senior Davis Tebben remembers walking out before the race and looking back at the hundreds of runners grouped together at the starting line. ā€œI thought, ā€˜This is the last cross country race Iā€™ll ever get to race. Iā€™m so thankful to be here, and no matter how this race goes, Iā€™m going to enjoy it.ā€™ I locked that image away in my mind, jogged back to my team, and raced.ā€

Looking back at the race, Junior Peter Shippy recalls how he hoped that he would not let his teammates down and that he would run the best race he could.

ā€œThe night before, we talked about how to run the race, it was key for me to start further back because I tend to race poorly if I go out with the top guys,ā€ he says. ā€œI wanted to start working my way up at mile two. I followed that plan during the race. When I caught up to Eric, Davis, and Joeā€”which I hadnā€™t done all season up to that pointā€”it became real to me that we could actually win it, so I just tried to hang on.ā€

Hang on he did, and the menā€™s cross country team was rewarded for its months-long effort by taking home the first place trophy.

ā€œEverything is special about this group,ā€ says Menā€™s Cross Country Coach Nate Wolf. ā€œTheir willingness to sacrifice and share in each otherā€™s successes. The way they prepared after a disappointing 2021 national championship race. I challenged the team at the start of the year to not be satisfied with good but to pursue the fullest extent of their God-given abilities and to do that together.ā€

Looking back at the race, Wolf is struck by how well the team raced. ā€œSince 2016, only one other menā€™s team has scored fewer than 100 points at the national meet (we scored 97). The men beat the defending national champions who scored the exact same number of points that they did in 2021, when they won by 60 points. Our top six runners were across the line in 34 seconds, before any other team had five runners finish. It was not only a championship performance, but one of the best championship performances by a menā€™s team in the past decade.ā€

Even winning first place at nationals couldnā€™t make Tebben more grateful for being part of the team than he already was. ā€œI was already so full of gratitude for these people. °¼Ķ¹ŹÓʵcross country is one of the great blessings of my life; many of my best friends and best memories have come from this team, and Wolf is the best coach Iā€™ve ever had.ā€

Steiger agrees. ā€œI donā€™t think Iā€™m out of line in saying that our team wouldnā€™t trade the relationships weā€™ve built with each other and with Coach Wolf for even a national title. Obviously, we structure our running around the national championship and performing to the best of our abilities there, but we run because we love to do it with each other, and we get to work toward a common goal together. The national championship was the icing on the cake for a running career I already couldnā€™t be more grateful for. I am so thankful for the teammates and the coaching staff I was surrounded by and for how running at °¼Ķ¹ŹÓʵdeveloped me into the person I am today.ā€

Sarah Moss ('10)

Wolf Named Top Dog

Coach Nate Wolf was named the NAIA Menā€™s Cross Country Coach of the Year after leading °¼Ķ¹ŹÓʵto the national championship.

Wolf, who took over both the menā€™s and womenā€™s program in 2015, continues to add to his impressive coaching resumĆ© at Dordt. Named GPAC Coach of the Year 11 times (six times for the womenā€™s program, five times for the menā€™s program), Wolf has guided the °¼Ķ¹ŹÓʵmen to five consecutive conference titles and five straight trips to the NAIA National Championship event. He has led the womenā€™s program to three straight GPAC titles, six overall during his eight-year tenure, and eight consecutive NAIA Championship appearances. Wolf was named the GPAC Coach of the Year in both menā€™s and womenā€™s cross country this season as well as the Midwest Regional Coach of the Year and National Coach of the Year by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

What Wolf enjoys most about coaching cross country are the athletes. ā€œI get to see some of the best people I know, nearly every day. I get to see 17 and 18-year-olds mature and develop as runners, as students, as people, and in their faith as they progress to 21 and 22-year-olds and then depart °¼Ķ¹ŹÓʵto be kingdom citizens looking to be part of Godā€™s redemptive work,ā€ says Wolf. ā€œThere are no words that fully encompass how I feel about them, and I am beyond privileged to have them call me their coach.ā€


A picture of campus behind yellow prairie flowers