KENOSHA, Wis. - Northwest Nazarene men's cross country has landed in Wisconsin and are getting ready to take on the best runners in the nation at the DII National Championships on Saturday.

The men's 10K race is set to be held at 11:15 AM CT / 10:15 AM MT at the UW Parkside's Wayne E. Dannehl National XC Course in Kenosha. Live coverage links can be found at the top of this story. 

NNU's squad of Micah Chi, Aaron Heberlein, Asher Ingram, Brody Kemble, Neftali Menendez, Grady Mylander, and Ian Stockett will be making program history the moment they step on the course on Saturday, as this is the first time that a Northwest Nazarene men's cross country team will run at DII Nationals. 

A top 40 finish individually for any of the Nighthawks will earn the runner USTFCCCA All-America status, which has only happened twice in program history - Barak Watson in both 2009 (38th) and 2011 (8th).

Wingate currently sits atop the USTFCCCA DII Men's XC rankings, followed by Adams State, Colorado Mines, Grand Valley State, and Lee (TN). The West Regional winner, Chico State, is 11th heading into the championships, followed closely by GNAC rival Western Washington in 12th. Fellow GNAC squad Alaska Anchorage enters the final race in 20th, with NNU not far behind in 23rd. 

See below for facts and figures on the historic 2025 Nighthawks' season heading into the championship race.

Team Notes

• This is the first time in program history that Northwest Nazarene has sent its men's cross country squad to the NCAA Division II National Championships (fully joined DII in 2002, had gone to NAIA nationals a couple times before that)
• Only the second time that an NNU team as gone, as the women went as a team in 2019 and placed 16th overall
• Only three NNU men's individuals had qualified for DII nationals before this year: Barak Watson twice in 2009 (finished 38th) and 2011 (finished 8th), and Tyler Shea in 2019 (finished 101st)
• NNU won the first two races of the season (Scholes XC Classic at CSI and the NNU Invitational) and took second to No. 11 Chico State in the third race, the Mike Johnson Classic at Western Oregon
• The Nighthawks then took eighth at the stacked Lewis Crossover, with all seven teams that finished ahead of NNU ranked in the top 25
• NNU placed third at the GNAC Championships and fifth at the NCAA West Regional, and their resumé was good enough to earn one of the 10 at-large team bids to nationals
• The men have been ranked in the USTFCCCA top 25 for most of the season, debuting at No. 22 in the preseason rankings and rising as high as 17^th in the Week 3 rankings, and will now enter the championships ranked No. 23 in the latest rankings on Nov. 12
• NNU was also ranked No. 20 in the latest FloTrack DII National Rankings on Nov. 18

Individual Notes

• Mylander (senior), Kemble (senior), and Stockett (junior) are the three-headed monster atop the squad, have been NNU's top three finishers at every race this year
• Mylander has been strong all season, finishing in the top seven of all six races, including taking third at the GNAC Championships and third at the West Regional for All-Region recognition
• Kemble had the upper hand to start the season, winning NNU's first three races, and then also earned All-Region honors with an 11th-place finish at the West Regional
• Kemble broke NNU's 8K race record this season with his time of 23:40.3 at the Mike Johnson Classic, 23 seconds ahead of the previous mark set by Barak Watson in 2011
• Mylander smashed the previous 10K program record at regionals, with his time of 29:35.4 clocking in 48 seconds faster than the previous mark also set by Watson in 2011
• In those first three races, Kemble, Mylander, and Stockett finished 1-2-3 in that order
• Stockett has had four top-10 finishes this year, and placed 12th at regionals to earn All-Region honors
• In the last FloTrack rankings on Nov. 18, Mylander was 32nd and Kemble 37th
• Ingram had a top-10 finish (sixth) at the Scholes XC Classic and also had a strong showing of 18th at GNACs and 43rd at regionals
• Chi placed 35th at GNACs and 72nd at regionals, Heberlein finished 44th at GNACs and 99th at regionals, and Menendez was 60th at GNACs and 106th at regionals