OKLAHOMA CITY (Sept. 23, 2020) – For more than a decade now, Oklahoma Christian's men's cross country team has been at or near the top of the conference in which it's been a member, be it the Sooner Athletic Conference, the Heartland Conference or (currently) the Lone Star Conference.

During the 2010s, the Eagles won two national titles (one NAIA, one NCCAA) and three conference crowns (one in the SAC and two in the Heartland) and never finished outside the top four in any league meet in which they raced. With most of his key contributors returning from a crew that earned the program's first regional ranking in four years and placed fourth in the deep, talented LSC race last year, OC coach Wade Miller feels good about the prospects of that streak continuing in 2020.

The Eagles will open their season Friday in Grand Prairie, Texas, in the Orville Rogers DBU XC Opener, to be hosted by Dallas Baptist (Texas).

"It's exciting to see how hard they worked over the summer and the work they've put in in practice," Miller said. "It's going to be fun to actually race on Friday and see where we're at and go through the process of adjusting training and working on the race mentality that we haven't got to experience for seven months or so."

OC surprised many in its first year in the LSC, but not Miller, who knew he had a deep group of runners who could run together while posting fast times for 8,000 or 10,000 meters. That lack of separation is a good thing in cross country, a sport in which team scores are determined by the position in which a team's top five runners finish.

Runners in OC's top group last season included current seniors Colton Meyers (an All-LSC selection in 2019) and Caleb Bozarth (an All-Heartland runner in 2018) and current sophomores Ethan Anthony, Colten Brown and Owen Pearce (a two-time LSC freshman runner of the week selection last season). Pearce's win in last year's South Central Region Preview race was the first for an OC runner since 2015.

Anthony isn't with the team this semester (he's still at his home in Australia due to the COVID-19 pandemic) but Miller says junior Jelte van Atten has "done a good job of being persistent" and taken a step forward to run with the Eagles' top group. From The Netherlands, van Atten is a three-time All-Great American Conference honoree in track and field.

"Based on early season training, it looks like everybody is really close to one another," Miller said. "They raced well as a pack last year and I think year is going to be a really similar situation, in which they're kind of working off each other within races. It will be important for each person to take ownership of their position and the importance placed on each person, because on any given day, it could be their time to be an important piece of our performance."

One challenge for Miller this year will be developing runners to fill in what ideally should be a seven-man starting lineup. The good news is, there are plenty of intriguing possibilities. Senior Brady Aderholt provides experience and veteran savvy. Junior Nick Parizek and sophomore Kolten Johnson each have collegiate postseason experience.

Sophomores Austin McNair and Dylan Burrows each have a season of college experience and freshman Griffin Chesire – from the distance-running hotbed of Eldoret, Kenya – could be a wild card.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an adjusted schedule for the Eagles this season. In addition to the DBU meet, OC is scheduled to compete in the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater on Oct. 3 and this year's LSC Championship race, set for Oct. 31 in San Angelo, Texas.

Because of the pandemic, the NCAA won't be holding its usual Division II regional or national meets this fall, but Lubbock Christian (Texas) will host the Division II XC National Invitational on Nov. 14. The top six teams from the LSC will be invited to run in that race, which should include teams from the six Division II conferences that are competing in cross country this fall.

"There are some strong teams in our conference," Miller said. "The top five or six teams are always going to be competitive with one another. There will be a lot of back and forth there. … We've had to find ourselves a little bit more in NCAA Division II than we would have liked. It's just a different structure all around. We definitely want to compete for championships, for sure. That's what we want our program to be about."