By After winning another Frontier Conference Championship, the Fighting Saints Men’s cross country team headed to the NAIA Cross Country Championship on Friday, Nov. 17.
The Saints finished 20th in the nation. That was followed by a victory in Vancouver, Washington, in the final meet of the season.
The NAIA Championship was a competitive meet with 36 teams present. Within these teams, there were 328 individual runners.
The Carroll Men earned their highest rank since 2015 with a placement of 18.
Connor O’Hara, a senior Business Management and Marketing major from Ulm, Montana, placed the highest for the Carroll men at 74.
James Normandeau, a senior Biochemistry major from Ronan, Mont. ran his last cross-country race for the Saints.
“I couldn’t imagine my experience at Carroll without the cross-country team,” said Normandeau. “It’s a difficult sport, but you find a lot of camaraderie with your teammates. It helps to know your friends are out there racing or working out with you. I’m going to miss this.”
Carroll’s coach is proud of the team’s performance.
“The men took big steps forward this season and capped it off with a great finish at Nationals!” said head coach Shannon Flynn. “20th place is our highest finish since 2015, and it was fun to see the men run so well as a group despite adversities in the race.”
