Liberty XC Set for ASUN Championships in Alabama
10/26/2022 10:27:24 AM | Cross Country
The Liberty men’s and women’s squads will make their fifth and final appearance at the ASUN Conference Cross Country Championships, Saturday at John Hunt Park in Huntsville, Ala. The Lady Flames will aim for their third consecutive team title, while the Flames are in search of their first ASUN crown.
The women’s 5K will begin at 9 a.m. Eastern, followed by the men’s 8K at 9:45.
How to Follow the Flames and Lady Flames
Live results will be available during both races, courtesy of Xpress Timing.
Weather Report
Saturday morning’s forecast in Huntsville calls for overcast skies and a temperature in the 50s.
Checking Out the Course
Liberty will be racing at John Hunt Park for the first time on Saturday. Many of the Flames’ ASUN opponents will return to the venue on Nov. 11 for the NCAA Division I South Regional Championships.
The course has been known to produce fast times. At the North Alabama Showcase on Sept. 16, eight men broke 24:00 in the 8K and 11 women broke 17:00 in the 5K.
Women’s Team Preview
After capturing team titles at both the Spring 2021 and Fall 2021 ASUN Championships, the Lady Flames enter Saturday’s race attempting to make it three conference championships in a row for the first time in program history at the Division I level.
The last ASUN women’s squad to capture three conference titles in succession was Lipscomb, who won six in a row between 2011-16. The Bisons have finished second to Liberty at each of the last two championships, extending their streak to 12 consecutive top-two showings at this meet.
Lipscomb is expected to provide Liberty’s most significant challenge once again this weekend, as the Bisons are currently ranked No. 3 in the South Region while the Lady Flames check in at No. 5 in the Southeast Region. Other regionally ranked squads include Kennesaw State (No. 10 in the South) and Eastern Kentucky (No. 15 in the Southeast).
The Lady Flames’ lineup on Saturday will feature a pair of first-team All-ASUN performers from last season, including defending individual champion Calli Doan and sixth-place finisher Anna Hostetler.
Liberty’s entrants have captured a total of nine All-ASUN medals during their career, including four by Doan, two apiece by Hostetler and Priscillah Kiplagat and one by Marie Hostetler.
The Lady Flames have also been buoyed by a talented freshman class headlined by Ava Gordon and Kayla Werner. They have combined for three ASUN Freshman of the Week honors this fall and produced the two fastest 5K times by a freshman in program history at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational on Sept. 30 (16:34.7 by Gordon, 16:40.0 by Werner).
After winning the Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational for the second year in a row, the Lady Flames have placed highly against nationally competitive fields at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational (sixth place) and Weis-Crockett Invitational (fourth place).
Lipscomb has finished second at each of its last two invitationals, trailing only Illinois at the Gans Creek Classic and losing to only Ohio State at the Arturo Barrios Invitational. The Bisons return three top-nine finishers from last year’s ASUN meet in Lydia Miller (fifth), Colbi Borland (seventh) and Mackenzie Barnett (ninth).
Women’s Individual Preview
Liberty’s Calli Doan is favored to repeat as ASUN women’s individual champion after capturing her first ASUN title last fall. The 2021 All-American opened her year with back-to-back individual titles (Liberty Challenge and Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational) before placing seventh at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational and third at the Weis-Crockett Invitational.
Doan’s 5K time of 16:15.1 at Notre Dame shattered her program record of 16:57.4 from last year’s ASUN meet at Disney.
Doan has placed inside the top five at each of her first four ASUN Championships, including fifth in 2018, second to teammate Adelyn Ackley-Fairley in 2019 and spring 2021 and first in fall 2021. Now she has a chance to become the first five-time all-conference performer in Liberty and ASUN Conference history.
Anna Hostetler and Priscillah Kiplagat will each attempt to join teammates Doan, Ackley-Fairley and Noel Palmer as Lady Flames who have earned All-ASUN honors three times or more in cross country.
Ava Gordon (16:34.7) and Kayla Werner (16:40.0) have run the two fastest cross country 5K times in Liberty program history. They are two top contenders to follow in the footsteps of Doan (2018) and Ackley-Fairley (2019) as Lady Flames who have won ASUN Freshman of the Year honors at this meet.
Jacksonville’s Hayleigh Palotti pushed Doan all the way to the finish line in Orlando last season before taking second place. She has posted a pair of first-place finishes this fall and is expected to run near the front of the pack again.
Eastern Kentucky’s Jone Zabaleta-Larranaga, last year’s fourth-place finisher, was a two-time ASUN champion on the track last year (indoor 3K and outdoor 5K). She has broken 17:00 all three times she has competed this fall, including a 16:41.9 at John Hunt Park for fifth place at last month’s North Alabama Showcase.
A pair of top-five finishers from the Arturo Barrios Invitational could also contend on Saturday, in fourth-place Lydia Miller of Lipscomb and fifth-place Caroline Timm of Kennesaw State. Miller was fifth at the 2021 ASUN meet, while Timm took 17th at the 2021 Ivy League meet for Princeton.
Men’s Team Preview
Liberty has placed first or second at each of its last 19 conference cross country championships, beginning with the 2003 meet. The Flames have finished as the ASUN runner-up each of the last four seasons.
Checking in at No. 12 in the Southeast Region, Liberty is one of six regionally ranked men’s squads in the ASUN. The Flames are joined in the regional listings by two-time defending champion North Florida (No. 5 in the South Region), Lipscomb (No. 8 in the South Region), FGCU (No. 15 in the South Region), Central Arkansas (No. 6 in the South Central Region) and Eastern Kentucky (No. 7 in the Southeast Region).
The Flames are in search of their first conference title since 2013 (Big South), while North Florida attempts to become the first team to win three in a row since Lipscomb (2013-15). The Ospreys and Bisons have combined to win the last nine ASUN men’s cross country titles.
Liberty will be competing with heavy hearts on Saturday, as two-time All-ASUN runner Kipruto Kogei tragically passed away last week following an automobile accident in Indiana.
Kyle Harkabus (11th place) is the Flames’ top returnee from last year’s ASUN Championship, while teammate Caleb Olson is a two-time All-ASUN performer.
Newcomers have also given Liberty a lift this fall, as Iowa Western Community College transfer Nicholas Kiprotich has won a pair of races (Liberty Challenge and Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational) and Jacob Hess is a two-time ASUN Freshman of the Week.
North Florida has been running well this fall, posting lofty finishes at a pair of meets hosted by SEC squads (third at Missouri’s Gans Creek Classic and second at Alabama’s Crimson Classic).
Eastern Kentucky could also be dangerous on Saturday. The Colonels, who won 14 Ohio Valley Conference titles during their last 15 years in the league, placed fifth at the Panorama Farms XC 23 Invitational without standout performers Ahmed Jaziri and Ahmed Kadri.
Men’s Individual Preview
Eastern Kentucky’s Ahmed Jaziri raced to the ASUN men’s cross country individual title a year ago. The 2022 NCAA men’s steeplechase national champion, who has yet to race this fall, will attempt to become the first back-to-back ASUN champion since Northern Kentucky’s J.J. Webber in 2013 and 2014.
Liberty’s Azaria Kirwa captured the ASUN men’s cross country individual title during the Flames’ first year in the conference (2018). If Liberty hopes to bookend its time in the ASUN with individual champions, the Flames’ top hopes lie with fellow Eldoret, Kenya native Nicholas Kiprotich.
Kiprotich raced to individual titles at the Liberty Challenge and Virginia Tech Alumni Invitational before blazing a time of 23:33.9 for five miles at the Joe Piane Invitational. That day, he was the fastest ASUN finisher by more than 30 seconds.
Caleb Olson has a chance to join former teammates Ryan Drew and Felix Kandie as the only Flames ever to earn a trio of All-ASUN medals for men’s cross country.
Two-time ASUN Men’s Freshman of the Week Jacob Hess is a contender to become the Flames’ first ASUN Men’s Freshman of the Year. Liberty’s last conference freshman of the year was Stanley Langat (2016 Big South).
Other potential contenders include North Florida’s Aidan O’Gorman, Lipscomb’s Brady Johnson and FGCU’s Osman Humeida.
The runner-up at the Spring 2021 ASUN Cross Country Championships, O’Gorman has been the Ospreys’ top performer this fall. Johnson’s 23:51.9 8K clocking placed him an ASUN-best fourth at the Arturo Barrios Invitational. Humeida has won two races this season and ran an FGCU 8K program-record 24:01.6 at John Hunt Park last month. An FGCU runner has never placed better than third at this meet.