ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Northwest Nazarene cross country flew east to compete at the Lewis XC Crossover meet on Saturday, taking on large and highly competitive fields of teams on both the men's and women's sides.
 
On the men's side, there were 36 teams and 339 athletes that finished the race. Thirteen of the teams were ranked in the top 30 in the nation heading into the meet. As a team, NNU placed 16^th out of those 36 squads.
 
Only two other non-ranked teams finished higher than the Nighthawks. Also, there were four other GNAC teams in the race, and NNU finished higher than three of them with Alaska Anchorage 18^th, Western Oregon 20^th, and Simon Fraser 23^rd. Western Washington was the highest GNAC squad with a runner-up finish, only trailing the No. 3 team in the nation in Colorado School of Mines.
 
As has been the case all year, Brody Kemble led the Nighthawks' efforts with a 22^nd-place finish, crossing the line in 24:28.17. Ian Stockett and Carter Stedman finished within less than a second of each other to place 61^st and 63^rd, respectively.
 
Grady Mylander was also in the top 25% of finishers, placing 77^th. Asher Ingram rounded out the counting members for NNU in 154^th, with Micah Chi and Neftali Menendez also competing in the race.
 
For the women, NNU finished 29^th out of the 36 competing teams that included 10 ranked in the top 30 of Division II. Of note, NNU edged out GNAC competitor Western Oregon (32^nd). There were 332 total athletes that finished the race.
 
Morgan Erler led the Nighthawks' effort once again, finishing 37^th with a time of 22:01.43.
 
Mckenna Lechner was next for NNU in 203^rd, followed by Paige Trautman (223), Olivia Blum (238), and Keelin Stewart (256). Casey Collom and Alyssa Blum also competed for the Nighthawks.
 
The Nighthawks will now set their sights on the GNAC Championships, scheduled for October 26^th in Bellingham, Washington.