SEWARD, Neb. – A well-earned bye week leads Concordia University, Nebraska Cross Country into a pivotal final regular season meet. The Bulldogs are preparing themselves to compete in Saturday’s Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic co-hosted by College of Saint Mary and Doane. The meet is slated to get underway with the women’s 6K race at 10 a.m. CT. The men’s 8K race will follow at 10:45 a.m. from Mahoney State Park in Ashland, Neb., the site of the 2024 and 2025 GPAC Championships.
Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic – Saturday, Oct. 24
Mahoney State Park | Ashland, Neb.
• 10 a.m. – women’s 6K race
• 10:45 a.m. – men’s 8K race
• Live Results
Head Coach Matt Beisel’s squads have navigated four meets this 2026 season. Most recently, Concordia emerged from Dordt’s Holiday Inn Express Classic with place finishes of fifth out of 13 on the men’s side and sixth out of 13 on the women’s side. The top Bulldogs were freshman Hope Beck in the women’s 6K (23:03.5; 19th place) and junior Vaughn Hendrickson in the men’s 8K (25:32.6; eighth place). Beck and Hendrickson were honored as GPAC Runners of the Week on Oct. 7, following the Briar Cliff Invite.
Backed by a strong freshman class, the women’s team received votes in the NAIA coaches’ poll released on Oct. 15 (landing at No. 31 in the poll). Beck has starred as the team’s top runner in all four meets this season. She was followed by three freshmen in the lineup at the Dordt meet: Katie Johnsen, Rachel Prince and Amanda Smith. Meanwhile, the men were left out off the ballots of the NAIA voters in the most recent poll. Hendrickson has been pushed near the top of the lineup by seniors Aidan Limback and Trey Robertson, among others.
In previous meets, the women placed 10th out of 28 at the Augustana Twilight, 10th out of 20 at the Augustana Invite and third out of nine at the Briar Cliff Invite. In the same meets, the men placed sixth out of 33, 11th out of 19 and third out of eight, respectively.
The Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic often features strong NAIA programs from the region and beyond. The 2025 meet included a total of seven NAIA top 25 teams between the men’s and women’s races. The team champions at last year’s Blazing Tiger Classic were College of Idaho on the women’s side and University of Saint Mary (Kan.) on the men’s side.
The 2026 GPAC Cross Country Championships will be held on Saturday, Nov. 7 on the Dordt campus. Dordt most recently hosted the championship meet in 2019. The 2026 NAIA Cross Country National Championships are scheduled for Nov. 20 in Vancouver, Wash.