UBC cross-country sweeps team titles at NAIA Championships

For the first time in school history, the UBC Thunderbirds are men’s and women’s team champions at the NAIA Cross-Country Championships.

The University of British Columbia cross-country teams compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), which comprises of universities in, mostly, the United States as well as Canada. The association is predominately colleges and universities with a smaller student population.

On Saturday, in Vancouver, Wash, just outside of Portland, Ore., UBC won its first men’s team title in school history. The UBC women have dominated the NAIA in recent years. Saturday’s win was the program’s fifth cross-country win in the past six years after the Thunderbirds won for the first time at the national cross-country level in 2012, also at Fort Vancouver.

The men contested 8K; the women raced 5K, in that order, on Saturday. The UBC men placed all five scorers in the top-20, for a total points score of 41 to second-place Columbia’s 161 points, including a bronze-medal podium finish from Kieran Lumb, who ran 24:27 for 8K. UBC’s point score was the lowest on the men’s side since 1998, according to the NAIA.

Nicola Symonds matched Lumb’s bronze medal in the second of the day’s two championship races covering 5K in 17:26. The leading-five UBC women placed within the top-45 to score 109 points to Wayland Baptist’s 125 total. The Thunderbirds also claimed team banners in 2013, 2014 and 2016.

CROSS COUNTRY | Here are your #NAIAXC national champions! #GoBirdsGo @ubctrack

?: @photosteve57 pic.twitter.com/hVe8HkbaFh

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) November 18, 2017

UBC results (note that placings are among team scorers)

Women

1. 109 British Columbia ( 18:04 1:30:16 0:58)
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3 Nicola Symonds 17:26
11 Madelyn Brunt 17:53
27 Enid Au 18:09
33 Nicole Lacis 18:24
35 Madelyn Huston 18:24
( 98) Jamie Hennessey 19:14
(102) Alison Pouw 19:18

Men

1. 41 British Columbia ( 24:52 2:04:17 0:45)
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3 Kieran Lumb 24:27
4 John Gay 24:41
8 Jesse Hooton 24:50
12 Max Trummer 25:07
14 Tyler Dozzi 25:12
( 62) Michael Milic 26:07
( 64) Nicolas Tralli 26:09

This year’s NAIA Cross-Country Championships moved west from last year’s site in Elsah, Ill. UBC formerly competed in what was then the CIS and is now known as U Sports, Canada’s governing body for university athletics.

Full results can be found here.