Cross Country Team Lives Up to High Ranking

Albuquerque, NM-The RedTail Men's Cross Country team placed 20th (544 team score) at the 2019 NJCAA Division 1 Cross Country National Championships on November 9th.

The team had a reputation to uphold, as they entered the meet as the 18th ranked team in the country; and the RedTails were up for the challenge. The RedTails were led by fantastic freshman Sam Mickelson finishing with a time of 26:13.29. This left him with a 44th place finish, just shy of All-American status. However, this finish makes Mickelson the school record holder of the best finish at nationals. 

Brandon Conrad (27:07.22, 101st), Jonny Smith (27:10.07, 104th), and Payton Bahl (27:42.15, 128th) ran together and finished well as Keegan Dally (28:34.52, 177th) rounded out the RedTail top five.

"Our men's team came in ranked 18th so to walk away with a 20th place finish we were near where we wanted to be," said head coach Tyler Mulder. "As a freshman he [Mickelson] really ran strong for us all year and ends up being the school record holder in multiple distances for us, along with being our highest ever individual finish.  He's got a bright future and it was great to see Payton Bahl and Jonny Smith also wrap up their sophomore seasons for cross country which they really helped the program continue to be a top program in the country. Brandon Conrad really stepped up finishing 2nd for the team so we'll look to build off of our top two finishers and we'll have some great leaders from that group!  Next we aim our focus onto the indoor season!"