SACRAMENTO, Calif. — This morning, Cross Country officially wrapped up its 2024 season at the NCAA Championships. After capturing its second consecutive PacWest crown just over a month ago, the men's cross country team earned 19th place overall at Nationals, marking it the program's second best finish ever.

Meanwhile, Jessica (Kampman) Walczak was the lone runner representing the women's cross country team after earning an individual spot at Nationals with a third place finish at the NCAA West Regionals in Montana. Walczak finished 12th overall in the nation, earning herself All-American honors in her first and only season with the Cougars.

Flashback to two weeks ago, the men's cross country team had just finished fifth at Regionals, unsure if they would be granted a shot at competing at Nationals. However, that Monday, the team was granted the good news that they would get the chance to compete at Nationals for the third season in a row. In 2022, the team finished 21st overall in its first ever appearance at the NCAA Championships. Then, the following year, the team powered to a program-best tenth place finish in Joplin, Missouri.

This year, rainy weather and all, the team fought for 6.21 miles, ultimately finishing 19th in the nation.

Leading the team today and the rest of the season was Jared Wright, crossed the line with a time of 31:02.9. Wright, who finished third at the Regional meet two weeks ago, was flirting with the All-American threshold for the first 3k of the race but found himself in the top 60 for the rest of the rest, eventually finishing 71st overall. Wright closed out his collegiate cross country career as a 2024 PacWest Individual and Team Champion, a three-time All-Region runner, and advanced to the National meet three of his four seasons. 

Felix Perrier was next for the Cougars, crossing the line 86th overall with a time of 31:14.1 in his third straight National appearance. Similar to Wright, Perrier also teetered in and out of All-American status for 6k of the 10k race, but closed strong with a top-100 finish.

Senior Riley Burns also closed out his collegiate cross country career by placing 103rd overall with a time of 31:24.2. Burns, a four-time member of the All-Conference team, started the race in 192nd before moving up nearly 90 places.

Eric Perez was the fourth finisher for the Cougars, moving from 177th place to 143rd over the course of the race. Perez finished his cross country career with a personal-best time of 31:58.0 in the 10k.

Rounding out the Cougars top-five scorers was Michael Schneider who finished 186th overall with a time of 32:18.0. Schneider worked his way up for the entirety of the race afterr starting in 236th and moving up 50 places by the end of the race.

Then, closing out Azusa Pacific's runners were Kyle Galinis and Avery Erickson, both competing in their first NCAA Championship season and will be key contributors to next year's squad.

Meanwhile, representing the women, Jessica Walzcak earned 12th place overall, to earn All-American honors, making her the top finisher for a PacWest Conference runner since fellow APU runner Eileen Stressling was tenth in 2018. She crossed the finish line with a time of 20:51 over the muddy 6k course.

The 2024 PacWest Individual Champion punched her ticket to Nationals two weeks ago after earning third place overall at Regionals. Prior to her lone season at APU, Walczak was 5-time NAIA All-American, including twice in cross country and now has an NCAA All-American trophy to add to the stack of awards as she closes out her collegiate cross country career.

The trip also concluded head coach Jebreh Harris' first year as new head coach of the Men's and Women's Cross Country teams leading the men's program to a second consecutive PacWest title, third straight trip to Nationals and helped lead the women's program to fourth place finish at the Conference Championships.