LAWRENCE, Kan. – The UBC Thunderbirds cross country team ended their season in historic fashion on Saturday morning, successfully defending their NAIA national title. The women were once again national champions while the men were eighth, good enough to give UBC a combined team championship, edging out Olivet Nazarene (Ill.)
 

WOMEN

Saturday's win marked a number of historic feats for the UBC program. The Thunderbirds became just the third program in NAIA history to start the season with a No. 1 ranking and go on to win the national championship. UBC also becomes only the third school ever to have been ranked the No. 1 team for the entire season. In addition, UBC becomes only the fourth institution in NAIA history to win consecutive national championships. The only other schools to do so are Puget Sound (Wash.), California State San Marcos, and Simon Fraser (B.C.).

With six All-Americans, the UBC Thunderbirds dominated its competition on Saturday nearly doubling the score of second-place College of Idaho. British Columbia was led by third-year standout Maria Bernard, who captured the bronze medal in the women's five-kilometre race. Catherine Farish had an outstanding breakthrough race; placing 11th while Amelie de Fenoyl was two seconds back in 12th.

The battle between College of Idaho and UBC was extremely tight after the first three scorers but the Thunderbirds pulled away thanks to great performances from runners fourth through seven.

Jackie Regan covered the 5km distance in a time of 18 minutes and 20 seconds, good for a 19th place finish, despite being injured for the better part of the season.

Micha Gutmanis and Natalia Hawthorn snuck into the top-30 and will be bringing home some hardware after collecting All-American honours, with placing's of 28th, and 29th, respectively. Gutmanis capped off the Thunderbirds scoring giving them 56 points versus College of Idaho's 97. Biola (Calif.) wrapped up the podium positions placing third, equaling their ranking coming into the weekend.

Not to be outdone, Heather Slinn slipped into the top-50 with a 42nd-place performance, an excellent way to cap off her cross country career with the UBC Thunderbirds.

College of Idaho's Hillary Holt successfully defended her individual title covering the course in a blistering time of 16:48, nine seconds clear of second place.
 

MEN

The men once again had a solid showing and were the top A.I.I. team at the national championship thanks to an eighth-place performance. The team was led by Will Cliff who managed to find enough in the end to snag the last remaining All-American spot coming through the line in 30th. The captain covered the 8km course in a time of 25:10.

Jack Williams put himself in a good position early in the race mixing it up in the top 15 but would fade to 49th, nonetheless a great performance and an all-time best in terms of placement at the NAIA cross country championship for Williams.

Freshman Jesse Hooton stepped up and was the team's third scorer placing 56th, a great sign for things to come, as the rookie has been the epitome of consistency this fall season.

Bilal Shamsi and Justin Kent were just shy of breaking the top 100, placing 103rd and 107th, respectively. Shamsi and Kent wrapped up the team scoring amassing 273 points, good for eighth overall in team scoring.

Oklahoma City took the banner amassing 77 points en route to their first NAIA cross country banner in program history. The Stars placed fourth athletes in the top-30 despite only being ranked fifth entering the weekend.

Michael Bourgeois and Matt Galea were the sixth and seventh runners for the Thunderbirds, leaving Kansas with placements of 120th and 185th overall, respectively.

Southern Oregon's Eric Avila won the individual title for the first time in his career in comfortable fashion putting 20 seconds on his next-best competitor, with a time of 24 minutes, two seconds for the 8km championship race.

Several of the UBC will race in the Canadian Cross Country Championships next Saturday at Jericho Park for their respective clubs. After that, the team will have some much-deserved rest and begin preparation for the 2014 track and field season.