COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mathew Keitany and Mercy Chebet became All-Americans with school record performances and the women's cross country team placed 26th at the NAIA National Championships in Columbia, Missouri on Friday.

Keitany raced first and progressed through the race, similar to the year before at nationals. At the 1,000-meter mark he was in 83rd but jumped to 68th at the 2,000-meter mark and 39th at the 3,000-meter mark. By then, he was on track to be an All-American with a top 40 positioning. By 6,000 meters, he was in 17th place, which was his final position out of 326 competitors. He was 58th at the 2023 national championship.

Keitany's final time was 24:21.5, which beat his school record performance from the NAIA Great Lakes Challenge just under a month ago by 15.6 seconds. It was also 15.9 seconds faster than when he competed on that course earlier this year on September 27 in the Gans Creek Classic. Keitany had the second-best time among the Crossroads League runners in the race, only behind Eli Fullerton of Indiana Wesleyan, who finished seventh.

The women ran next and came in 26th out of 35 teams in their second ever appearance at the national championship as a team. Mercy Chebet came in 36th out of 306, moving up through the majority of the race. Her final time of 21:46.9 was 22.3 seconds better than her previous school record from 14 days ago at the Crossroads League Championships. It was a 30.6 second improvement from her previous time on the course.

Stephany Claudio came in 107th with a season-best time of 22:51.3. Britney Ortega was next in 205th place and a season-best time of 23:40.9. Next was Caroline Jelimo in 231st at 24:00.1 and the final top five finisher was Ella Armstrong in 271st with a season-best 24:46.7. Marin Kauffman Smith came in at 24:50.4 for 277th place and Teresa Ross Richer had a time of 25:07.2 and came in 286th. Claudio moved up 23 spots in the latter half of the race. Ortega moved up 38 spots from the 1,000-meter mark to the end of the race and Armstrong jumped 25 spots in the same span.

College of Idaho won the men's race with a final score six points ahead of Milligan. Evert Silva of Oklahoma City won the individual title, finishing more than 30 seconds ahead of the runner-up at 23:14.0. The Master's narrowly defeated Taylor for the women's team title, with their 92 points beating the 93 from the Trojans. However, Taylor freshman Jaynie Halterman won the individual title, completing her perfect season where she didn't lose a single race she competed in.

The indoor track and field season starts on Friday, December 6, at the Blue-Gold Invite in South Bend at 1:00 pm.