No. 1 Taylor Aims for Program’s Second Red Banner at NAIA Nationals
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COLUMBIA, Mo. – No. 1 Taylor looks to remain unbeaten against NAIA competition and cap its 2024 season with the program's second Red Banner when it competes at the 2024 NAIA Women's Cross Country Championship held Friday, Nov. 22, in Columbia, Missouri.
The Trojans (80-1) have blown away NAIA competitors in all five meets they have participated in, beating the runner-up NAIA-only institutions by at least 42 points each race and by an average of 58.4 points per race.
Taylor has set a team-time program record in three of its five competitions in 2024, with its last two meets producing a 5k program record at the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge and a 6k record at the Crossroads League Championships in Upland, Indiana, where it took home the league title for a 12th consecutive year.
Setting the Table
TU faces its toughest test yet, however, at the NAIA Championships, where it will see the other schools ranked in the top six for the first time. Namely, No. 2 Milligan, No. 3 Saint Mary and last year's runner-up, No. 4 The Master's, have all received first-place votes in the NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Rating throughout most of the season.
The Purple and Grey have seen the national championship course – held in Columbia for the first time – once this season at the Mizzou Gans Creek Classic on Sept. 27. There, 6k program records were set (at the time) by Jaynie Halterman and the Trojans, as the team bested current-No. 7 Cumberlands by 42 points.
Behind Halterman's individual win on Sept. 27, Noel VanderWall and Ahna Neideck delivered stellar times hovering around 21:30.0 to finish in the top 10 out of 307 runners, while Audrey Brinkruff and Sam Patterson rounded out the Trojans' five contributing times at 22:30.0 or better.
Dissecting the Top Seven
The seven runners lined up to race Friday are all coming off All-Crossroads League performances and top-14 individual finishes from this year's CL Championship. They are Halterman, VanderWall, Neideck, Patterson, Brinkruff, Kaitlin Burden and Abby Mays. Also available if needed are Emersyn Funk, Kennedy Applegate and Rebekah Firestone, who all have placed inside TU's top-seven finishers once this season.
If Halterman, a two-time NAIA National Runner of the Week, is to stay undefeated in her collegiate career, she would become TU women's first individual national champion ever.
Neideck and VanderWall have both been named NAIA All-Americans twice in their careers, while Brinkruff garnered the title once. That entire trio was a part of Taylor's first Red Banner run in 2022, when all three finished as NAIA All-Americans.
Mays and Patterson both have a stake in the program's 6k record time of 1:48:34.7 set on Nov. 8, while Burden has been steady as can be, producing four top-six finishes amongst the Trojans this season.
The Essentials
The top-ranked Taylor women race in the 36-team field at 12:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. CT on Friday for the 45th Annual NAIA Women's Cross Country National Championship, held at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for K-12 students, and they can be purchased online at the National Championships Visitors Guide. Ticket gates open Friday at 9:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. CT.