Year-in and year-out, the men's and women's cross country programs at Shawnee State always test themselves against the best of the best that the NAIA -- and the entire country regardless of college division -- have to offer.
That formula -- and the relentless dedication that the Shawnee State men's and women's cross country programs show between meets in preparing for them -- have the Bears again represented on both sides of the coin.
The men's cross country program brings its entire team to the NAIA National Championships for the ninth consecutive season and for the 16th time in the last 17 campaigns, while the women's cross country program will have its first NAIA National Championship participant since the Fall 2021 NAIA National Championships when Olivia Cisco represents SSU women's XC.
Both units will compete at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course Friday in Columbia, Mo. -- with the 69th Annual Men's Cross Country National Championship beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET/10:30 a.m. CT and the 45th Annual Women's Cross Country National Championship beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. CT.
While the expectation is to always make it to the NAIA National Championships, the accomplishment, according to Shawnee State Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Conner Flynn, isn't any less sweet.
"Even though the national championships was an expectation of ours, we always appreciate the opportunity to compete against the best," Flynn said. "The men are a completely different unit than early on. They've been patient, and it's paid off thus far. As for Olivia Cisco, the position she's in is just a sign of her continued progression over the last 18 months. Olivia has done the work and set herself up for this."
The men's cross country program, which won its ninth consecutive conference championship and its second in as many seasons in the River States Conference, overcame one of the most impressive fields, from top to bottom, at the conference level en route to improving upon the rich tradition that the Shawnee State men's cross country has become well-known for.
Despite going up against No. 8 Rio Grande and No. 20 Indiana-East at the 2024 River States Conference Championships, the Bears won out as Shawnee State used fantastic consistency among its top five runners to claim the crown. Each of SSU's top-five runners in the meet -- Isaiah Lanoy, Kaiden Lanoy, Trevor Lanoy, Shawn Little, and Dylan French -- all ran between 25:05.6 to 25:52.3 as the Bears proved to be the only team in the field to nab five scoring times under 26 minutes in the meet.
Those efforts not only allowed all five of the aforementioned runners to be honored with either First-Team (I. Lanoy and K. Lanoy) or Second-Team (T. Lanoy, Little, French) All-RSC honors, but gave Flynn his second consecutive River States Conference Coach of the Year Award in the process.
Each of the above five individuals, along with Garrett Carver, Aidan Judd, Caden LaRue, and Jerry O'Dell, are listed as participants for the Shawnee State men's cross country program at the NAIA Men's Cross Country National Championships.
As for Cisco, the terrific harrier from nearby Waverly is quickly paving out one of the best individual women's cross country careers in recent memory. The first NAIA National Qualifier for Shawnee State on the women's side of the field since Jozi Brown in 2021, Cisco has shown incredible willpower and determination in growing into one of the most feared runners nationwide.
In her first race with Shawnee State back in September 2023, Cisco ran a 26:04 in the 6K. Now? The junior, as of the River States Conference Championships, holds a 22:14 -- an astounding three-minute, 50-second improvement in just 14 months.
While Flynn and assistant coach Dean Freitag have more than proved their worth as rising young coaches in the sport off of the above numbers along, Flynn is quick to deflect the credit to his standout runners.
"I have been pleased to see the focus that we've maintained over the past two weeks," Flynn said. "Everybody is on the same page and have the same goals."
Despite the move in national championship venues from the higher-altitude Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Vancover, Wash. to the flatter Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Mo., Flynn believes that the conditions, weather-wise, won't vary a great deal. In fact, Flynn says that the Gans Creek Cross Country Course itself is the biggest change.
"The biggest change will be the course itself," Flynn said. "Vancouver was much more of a grueling, battle over 8,000m type of course. Gans Creek is smooth and kept up with well. It's a great representation of a championship course and can offer many fast race fields on any given day."
With Shawnee State's national championship races sitting just over 36 hours away, Flynn simply wants to see the Bears push as hard as they can.
"All I want is to walk away from these National Championships knowing that we laid it all out there," Flynn said. "For both the men and for Olivia, we have goals we'd like to achieve. However, I know that if the athletes compete with the same focus and drive that we have this year, those goals will be a byproduct. We'd love to put on display what it means to be a Bear."
