OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 6, 2019) – One of Oklahoma Christian's strongest sports during the past decade has been men's cross country and the Eagles appear poised to continue that success in 2019.

In the 2010s, the Eagles have won two national titles and two Heartland Conference titles. Now comes a new challenge – membership in Division II's largest league, the Lone Star Conference.

OC was picked eighth in the LSC preseason poll, although coach Wade Miller believes his team has the ingredients to finish considerably higher – a mix of proven veteran runners to go with a strong freshman class. The Eagles will race in their first meet of the season Saturday when they make the short trip to Edmond Santa Fe High School for the annual Central Oklahoma Land Run. Race time will be at 8:45 a.m.

Leading the team will be five hard-working upperclassmen including seniors Jake Weith of Arlington, Texas, and Kelton Reynolds, from Abilene, Texas, and juniors Brady Aderholt of Vernon, Texas, Caleb Bozarth of Bakersfield, Calif., and Colton Meyers of Allen, Texas.
 
Meyers established himself as an All-Heartland Conference honorable mention runer in 2018, posting a career-best 8,000-meter time of 26:07.5 to lead OC in the Heartland Conference Championship meet in Laredo, Texas. Last year, he also set a career-best four-mile XC time of 21:40.8 and had the team's top 10,000-meter cross country time in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional in Denver, finishing 58th in 33:01.6.
 
Bozarth received All-Heartland Conference honorable mention recognition his freshman year and as a sophomore, he set a career-best four-mile time of 21:41.3 and finishing sixth in the Midwestern State/Red River XC Shootout, covering 8,000 meters in 26:35.1.
 
"I think we will be pretty deep this year," Miller said. "There will be a bunch of guys in the mix and if we can keep everyone healthy we will be all right."
 
Nick Parizek, from Oklahoma City (a Mount St. Mary High School product) and Jelte van Atten, from Leiden, Netherlands will also be returning this year as sophomores. Parizek earned All-Great American Conference honors in the indoor 800 meters in track and field, while van Atten is coming off a strong track campaign, during which he earned All-GAC honors in both the indoor mile and outdoor 1,500 meters.

Miller said most of his runners are healthy and ready to go this season, which a good thing, since the Eagles struggled somewhat last season in having consistent depth throughout the year. Even with those struggles, they still managed a fourth-place finish in the Heartland meet. The team's returning depth and experience should be beneficial to the seven freshmen this year as they seek to transition into running at the next level.
 
"With the good experience on the team this (freshman) group has some time to build in and get integrated into the team," said Miller. "I think the freshmen are a talented group and they have a lot of potential to provide immediate contributions to the team."
 
Miller feels good about this signing class and said there is a lot of good experience in the group, both at the high-school level and internationally.
 
Freshmen Colten Brown of Boise City and Miles Kahoe of Woodward both had successful high school careers in Oklahoma. Brown won 11 state titles – two in cross country and nine in track – during his four years and took the Class 2A individual cross country title in both 2017 and 2018, his senior season. As a senior, Kahoe finished third in the 400 meters and fifth in the 800 meters at the Class 5A state meet and in his junior year, he placed fourth in the 800 at the 5A meet.
 
Kolten Johnson from Lewisburg, Tenn., Austin McNair from Denton, Texas, and Owen Pearce from Kingman, Kan., also will be freshmen this season. Pearce was a Kansas state champion for Kingman High School, winning the 3,200-meter title in Class 3A track as both a sophomore and junior.
 
To fill out the freshman class, Miller recruited a couple of Australians – Ethan Anthony from Mornington and Dylan Burrows from Melbourne.
 
"Within the first couple of weeks, there has been no real separation," Miller said of his team as a whole. "I believe that they will be close to each other and that gaps (of time between runners) will be small."
 
That is a good sign leading into the season, he said, because it means the runners are pushing each other as they compete for the top seven spots. It's always better to have 10 or 12 guys fighting for the seven starting spots, versus scrambling to try to find seven available runners, Miller said.