VIDEO: Green accepts All-America award
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Two Bulldogs with aspirations of claiming All-America awards represented Concordia University, Nebraska Cross Country at the 2025 NAIA Cross Country National Championships in foggy Tallahassee, Fla., on Friday (Nov. 21) morning. Keeli Green etched her name into the record books while becoming the 11th All-American in Concordia women’s program history. Meanwhile, Vaughn Hendrickson appeared at the national meet for the second year in a row and placed in the top half of the field.
The two individual national qualifiers capped off the 2025 cross country season for Head Coach Matt Beisel’s programs. This season saw the Bulldogs record GPAC place finishes of third on the men’s side and fifth on the women’s side. The men narrowly missed out on a team at-large bid to the national championships.
“I couldn’t have asked for more from either of them. They did a great job this season,” Beisel said. “I’m very grateful to God to be able to coach them and be here to experience this with them.”
Concordia Results – 2025 NAIA National Championships:
26. Keeli Green: 21:50.5 (6k) | NAIA All-American
139. Vaughn Hendrickson: 26:12.6 (8k)
In making her first cross country nationals appearance since the 2023 meet held in Fort Vancouver, Wash., Green rivaled a personal best. Her 6k time of 21:50.5 on Friday was roughly 15 seconds off her PR (21:34.6) achieved at this season’s Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic. The Arlington, Neb., native spent a good portion of Friday’s race situated in the top 20 amongst the national field of 333 runners at Apalachee Regional Park. Her final placement of 26th easily met the top 40 threshold required for NAIA All-America honors.
Green became the second women’s runner during Beisel’s tenure to seize a cross country All-America medal. She joined Kylahn Freiberg (2023) with such distinction. Green improved significantly from her 2023 national meet when she placed 177th with a 6k time of 24:19.3. Green is also a two-time GPAC All-Conference award winner.
Said Beisel, “Keeli had a really good day. She got out strong and ran a 5:20 first mile. She came through the 5k mark at an 18:05 or something, which is right on track with her last two races. She ended up two seconds slower than her GPAC time on a hillier course. I thought it was a really good race. I’m really happy for her.”
As for Hendrickson, he hoped to duplicate his performance from last season when he placed 36th nationally with an 8k personal best of 24:37.2 as a freshman. In Friday’s jaunt, Hendrickson moved up to 59th place at the 6,000-meter mark before ultimately settling for 139th place out of 326 competitors in the national field. Hendrickson’s time came in at 26:12.6 in Tallahassee. Hendrickson’s 2025 season included a third-place conference finish.
Hendrickson and the rest of the field pushed through swampy conditions. Said Beisel, “Vaughn had a good start, fell back, then clawed his way up 20 places. The last 1,000 meters has a really big hill and that was the third time the guys ran it. He gave it everything he had. It just wasn’t his day today.”
Next up for the Bulldog distance runners will be the start of indoor track season. Concordia University, Nebraska Track & Field will begin the 2025-26 indoor season by hosting the Concordia Early Bird Meet on Dec. 12-13.
Added Beisel in summing up the cross country season, “I’m content but not satisfied with how the season went. We had so many good things happen. Almost everyone kept running PRs. From a training perspective, I think we put it together and did a great job. The team culture and atmosphere has been phenomenal, which makes everything better. I’m very thankful that God brought these great young people together.” Beisel also made mention of how the men’s team ran its best GPAC conference race in more than a decade and commended Trey Robertson and Josie Smith for their support as teammates. Robertson and Smith accompanied Green and Hendrickson to Tallahassee.