Milestone Makers: SSU men's XC program continues high standard of excellence; SSU men's T&F has six qualify for national championships
Even by its own lofty standards, the men's cross country and track and field program at Shawnee State enjoyed, without question, one of its best collective seasons in program history as the cross country program took home its eighth consecutive conference championship and finished 12th nationally at the 2023 NAIA Cross Country National Championships while the Shawnee State men's indoor and outdoor track and field programs had six different individuals qualify for NAIA National Championship events with Aiden Kammler and Justin Moore earning NAIA All-American status to close out a fantastic year for the SSU men's cross country and indoor/outdoor track and field programs.
A review of successes in each sport is below:
SSU men's XC wins eighth consecutive conference championship; finishes 12th at NAIA National Championships
The men's cross country program got the ball rolling in a big way during the fall semester, as the SSU men's XC program won its eighth consecutive conference championship dating back to the 2016-17 season last November.
In the 2023 River States Conference Championship Meet, Shawnee State cleaned up as the Bears claimed five of the top nine positions and six of the top 12 finishing spots en route to winning the River States Conference Championship with relative ease -- besting second-place Rio Grande by 32 points en route to claiming the conference title in its inaugural season in the River States Conference.
As a result of their finishes at the conference level, Aiden Kammler, Shawn Little, Kaiden Lanoy and Trevor Lanoy all obtained First-Team All-River States Conference accolades by finishing inside the top seven of the conference meet, while Alex Morris and Logan Boggs were named as Second-Team All-RSC recipients as part of finishing inside the top 14 overall in the 114-runner field.
During its regular season meets, the conference championship and the national championship, Shawnee State finished no worse than 12th in any meet in a highly-competitive schedule, finished inside the top-third of the fields it competed in over six out of its seven meets, and won two of the seven meets that it competed in, including the Jenna Strong Invitational as well as the River States Conference Cross Country Championships.
Shawnee State's RSC Conference Championship as a team is not only the eighth consecutive title for the unit as a whole, but marks the 13th conference title in the sport of cross country for Shawnee State over the past 14 seasons, which continues to further solidify SSU's standing as one of the nation's elite programs, not only in the Eastern United States, but nationally, as well.
The Shawnee State cross country program capped off the 2023 season with a 12th-place finish at the 2023 NAIA National Championships, an event where Aiden Kammler (14th place finish) claimed his third NAIA Cross Country All-American honor and Shawn Little (28th place finish) notched his first career NAIA All-American accolade. Kaiden Lanoy also finished inside the top-100 overall as the freshman from Lancaster -- one of three talented triplets that also includes brothers Isaiah and Trevor -- finished 93rd in the event to give SSU three top-100 finishers at the NAIA National Championships.
Kammler, Moore collect during indoor, outdoor campaigns; Austin, I. Lanoy, Morris, Rauch qualify for NAIA Track and Field National Championship events
Throughout the 2024 NAIA Track and Field season, Shawnee State - in particular Aiden Kammler and Justin Moore -- collected in a big way.
Indoor
Over the course of the indoor track and field season alone, Kammler and Moore combined for five River States Conference Indoor Athlete of the Week honors -- with Kammler winning four out of the five RSC Track Athlete of the Week accolades awarded by the conference from an indoor standpoint and Moore nabbing his first career RSC Field Athlete of the Week honor on Feb. 13.
Continuing their work from what had been done throughout the regular season, Kammler and Moore then combined to win six River States Conference Championships -- with Moore winning the River States Conference Championship in the shot put and setting the RSC Meet Record with a conference title-winning weight throw.
Completing a regular season and conference journey that resulted in Kammler garnering River States Conference Track Athlete of the Year honors, the senior from Portsmouth capped off the event by notching three first-place efforts.
In the one mile, Kammler set the conference record, running a 4:17.18 in the one mile to break the meet record by over six seconds and become the first RSC athlete to ever run under a 4:20 in the event. In the 3,000 meter run, Kammler ran a 8:42.28 -- setting yet another meet record by nearly a second over the old mark.
Then, Kammler, along with Dylan French, Philip Evory and Kaiden Lanoy, all combined to run a 10:44.79 in the distance medley relay -- which bettered second-place Midway by more than four seconds en route to another conference title. French notched Second-Team All-Conference honors and snagged a spot on the podium by running a 2:36.94 in the 1,000 meter run, while Alex Morris edged fellow teammate Shawn Little for Third-Team All-RSC accolades and a spot on the podium in the 5,000 meter run as Morris ran a 15:16.24 to Little's 15:23.23.
At the 2024 NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships, Kammler earned a NAIA National Runner-Up finish in the indoor 5,000 meter run while Moore finished ninth in the shot put to represent Shawnee State in a strong fashion in the event. Morris and Matthew Rauch also qualified for NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championship events, and nabbed top-30 finishes in the 5,000 meter run and the 3,000 meter racewalk, respectively.
Outdoor
As good as Shawnee State was on the indoor scene, Shawnee State's success from an outdoor standpoint was just as good, if not better, as a collective group.
Between Kammler, Moore and Alan Austin, the Shawnee State men's outdoor track and field combined for five additional River States Conference Outdoor Athlete of the Week honors, and the trio, between them, won five River States Conference Championships as Austin notched a victory in the discus, Kammler nabbed triumphs in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meter runs, and Moore collected the conference's shot put crown.
Additionally, Kammler and Moore were awarded with the River States Conference's Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year and Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year honors, respectively -- and Isaiah Lanoy joined Kammler, Moore and Austin in qualifying for the 2024 NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships as Lanoy's RSC Runner-Up performance in the 3,000 meter steeplechase helped SSU to again have four NAIA National Championship participants in the outdoor scene.
Kammler, who ran in the 5,000 and 10,000 meter runs, ultimately finished eighth nationally in the 5,000 meter run to earn his seventh and final NAIA All-American honor between the sports of cross country and track and field, and also finished 14th in the 10,000 meter run. Moore, meanwhile, fared even better -- finishing an outstanding third in the shot put to collect the highest finish for an underclassman in the event en route to his first career NAIA All-American honor while becoming Shawnee State's first-ever All-American in a field event.
Austin, who competed with Moore in the discus, finished 10th overall in the event with Moore posting a 12th place finish in the same field event, and Isaiah Lanoy added in a 19th place showing in the 3,000 meter steeplechase to round out the list of competitors who participated in the outdoor track and field national championships.
Shawnee State finishes school-best 13th in USTFCCCA Program of the Year Rankings
Behind a complete effort that included a top-15 team finish at the NAIA Cross Country National Championships in the fall and three NAIA All-American performances between Aiden Kammler, Shawn Little, and Justin Moore, the Shawnee State men's cross country and track and field programs achieved their highest finish in school history in the USTFCCCA-NAIA Track and Field and Cross Country Program of the Year rundown, placing 13th in the NAIA to complete a fantastic year where Shawnee State ultimately had 15 NAIA National Qualifiers on the men's side and claimed its highest finish in the USTFCCCA rundown since officially sponsoring the sport of indoor track and field beginning with the 2016-17 season.
Shawnee State, whose previous best in the season-ending program of the year standings was 15th following the 2022-23 season, bettered that position by two spots this past year. The Bears tallied 101 points for a 15th place mark last year, but dropped that mark to 84.5 points after improving its finish at the NAIA Cross Country National Championships by six spots and being represented well in the NAIA All-American track and field rundown between Kammler and Moore.
While Shawnee State was 13th in the entire NAIA in the rundown, the Bears were the seventh best program when only considering programs east of the Mississippi River, as the only programs on the east coast to finish ahead of SSU in the final rundown were No. 1 Cumberlands (Ky.), No. 4 William Carey (Miss.), No. 5 Indiana Wesleyan, No. 8 Montreat (N.C.), No. 9 Southeastern (Fla.) and No. 10 Milligan (Tenn.). Cumberlands, who finished the year as the top-ranked program, notched an NAIA-low five points by winning the 2024 NAIA Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field National Championships and placing third as a team in the NAIA Cross Country National Championships.
Shawnee State was one of only six programs in the Midwest to be ranked in the final rundown and one of only two programs in the Midwest outside of the state of Indiana to be ranked.
SSU men's XC/T&F dots academic lists
The Bears, however, weren't just successful from a running or field event standpoint.
In all, a total of seven individuals -- including Logan Boggs, Aidan Judd, Aiden Kammler, Alex Morris, Matthew Rauch, Evan Siberell and Malachi Shugert, were all named to the NAIA Scholar-Athlete list, while Phillip Evory, Jared Flowers and Matthew Rauch were named as River States Conference Scholar-Athletes in addition to the aforementioned.
Boggs, Judd, Kammler, Morris and Shugert were each named as College Sports Communicators Academic All-District selections, while Kammler, fittingly, capped off his stellar running career with College Sports Communicators First-Team Academic All-American honors to add an academic all-america honor on top of the seven NAIA All-American honors that he had already earned to that point in time.
For more information on SSU Bears Athletics, visit www.ssubears.com or visit the Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube pages at https://twitter.com/