Glendale, Ariz.- On Friday November 21^st, the NAIA will host the 46^th Annual Women's Cross Country Championship, and the 70^th Annual Men's Championship at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, FL.  Participating for the Firestorm will be three lady runners: Ezra Haller, Alison Unruh, and Kaesha Guillaume.  The men's team will be represented by Trevin Janssen.  To qualify, they needed to finish the GSAC Championships in the top 15 of point scorers, as well as be in the top four of individuals not on teams going to the national meet.  
 
Haller, Unruh, and Guillaume made program history by all three placing in the top ten and earning All-GSAC honors.  Janssen, despite entering the GSAC Championships ranked 26^th overall, climbed ten spots to place 16^th overall.  He finished 15^th among point scorers though to grab what would turn out to be the only available individual qualifier spot for the conference.

Game Details
Apalachee Regional Park (Tallahassee, FL) - Friday, November 21
8:30am EST – 6K (W)
9:30am EST – 8K (M)
Pricing - Admission is Free

Live Coverage
Watch For Free! - https://www.naia.org/watch/index
Live Stats -  https://pttiming.com/event.php?mid=2531&pt=schedule

Participating Runners
Ezra Haller: A freshman from Alberta, Canada; Haller did not race until the Highlander Invite on October 18^th as she recovered from injury, but wasted no time playing catch up.  Her fifth-place finish at the GSAC Championships was tops among all freshmen in the race, the second highest placing in program history, and her time of 22:23 is the fastest 6k time in program history for any course.
 
Alison Unruh: A junior transfer from Towanda, KS; having run the previous two years at Butler Community College, Unruh had never run the 6K distance before.  Despite the lack of experience, Unruh enters the NAIA Championships as the second fastest 6K runner in program history behind her teammate Haller.  Through varying courses, she managed to improved her 6K time every race.  Her 22:38 run at the GSAC Championships placed her 8^th overall and was the fourth highest place finish at the GSAC Championships in program history.
 
Kaesha Guillaume: A senior from Saskatchewan, Canada; Guillaume made the biggest jump of any runner this season to earn her spot at nationals.  A year prior, she finished 22^nd overall with a time of 25:05.  Her time of 22:44 was an improvement of 2:21 overall and earned Guillaume her first All-GSAC award of her career.  Guillaume's time places her fourth overall in program history for the 6K, and her place at GSAC ties her for sixth in program history.
 
Trevin Janssen: A senior from Waddell, AZ; Janssen, like Haller, struggled with injury the first half of the season, but had a breakthrough performance at the Highlander Invite in Riverside, CA when he ran a new personal best time of 26:18.  Janssen followed that with an even better race at the GSAC Championships, knocking another second off his best time, and moving ten spots up from where his previous best had ranked him coming in.  Janssen follows his brother Trent, who represented the team at last year's championships held in Columbia, MO.

ACU History at Apalachee Regional Park
The Cross Country National Championships was last held in Tallahassee in 2022. That year, the team was represented by then sophomore Brandon Ericson, senior Ariz Duarte, and freshman MaryAlice Mitchell.  Ericson finished the 8K course in a time of 25:31 to place 101^st out of 318 runners.  Duarte and Mitchell, racing in what turned out to be the final nationals 5K before the NAIA moved the race distance up to 6K, ran times of 19:21 and 19:28 to finish 152^nd and 169^thout of 326 runners.

Roll Storm!