No. 12 Taylor Men Trending Up as Crossroads League Championship Approaches
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UPLAND, Ind. – The No. 12 Taylor (63-24) men's cross country team is preparing for the 2023 Crossroads League Championships, which they are hosting at the Taylor Farm Cross Country Course in Upland, Indiana, on Friday, November 3, at 11:30 am.
The Trojans finished third at last year's Crossroads League Championships and return the bulk of the team, hoping to improve at the latest edition.
In the final NAIA Men's Cross Country Coaches' Top-25 Poll of the regular season, No. 12 Taylor landed as one of five Crossroads League teams to be named among the nation's best, including No. 1 Indiana Wesleyan, No. 10 Grace, No. 11 Goshen, and No. 23 Huntington.
Along the way, the TU men had their most impressive race of the season in the Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic on October 21, posting a season-best mark of 2:05:25 for the fourth-best time in program history.
Freshman Nathan Burns has come in blazing during a historic debut season for the Trojans. Burns has paced TU in every race, and notably, he set the new course record by over ten seconds at the TU Farm in the Bullock Invite, which he won and helped Taylor's team also set a new course record as a team at 2:09:15. The Mooresville, Indiana native set his personal best at the Blazing Tiger Classic, with a time of 24:36, which gave him the sixth-fastest time in program history.
Sophomore Luke Harber has also played a pivotal role for the Trojans this season, finishing second in three races and third in the final one for TU. Harber has been in the top 30 in three races and set a personal-best time of 25:13 in the most recent race.
Meanwhile, two upperclassmen, Ben Eiffert and Zach McKowen, have been a steady presence for the Trojans, each finishing among the Taylor top-five in all four races. Eiffert has finished as the third or fourth Trojan runner in each race with a trio of top-30 finishes. McKowen set his personal best time of 25:27 at the Blazing Tiger Classic.
Ryan Hanak is another Trojan who has displayed immense improvement throughout the season, running the second-fastest time of the season for the Trojans at 24:51, which was over a minute faster than his previous best.
The winner of the Crossroads League Championships in Upland on Friday will receive an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championships, set to commence in Vancouver, Washington, on November 18.
The Taylor men have competed at nine consecutive NAIA National Championships, finishing as the runner-up in 2019 and claiming the program's first national championship in 2020.
Parking for fans planning to attend will cost five dollars per person but no more than twenty dollars per vehicle. All students from Crossroads League schools will get in free, and no dogs are permitted at the course. There will be a live video if the weather allows for those unable to attend at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKAifh1YKjAAi6txM9PJXhw.