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INDIANAPOLIS - The Great Midwest Athletic Conference is taking the first championship of the academic year to Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tenn., host to the 2017-18 Cross Country Championships.
 
Twelve men’s and all 13 women’s programs will be on display Saturday morning at Vaughn’s Gap Course in Percy Warner Park.  
 
The men’s 8K race will start at 10:30 a.m. CST and the women’s 6K will begin after at 11:30 a.m. CST. The awards ceremony will follow by honoring the Great Midwest runners of the year, freshmen of the year and coaches of the year. The first and second team all-conference performers will also be recognized.
 
Five first-year league schools, Findlay, Hillsdale, Lake Erie, Ohio Dominican and Walsh, will participating in their first conference championship.
 
The championship banquet will be conducted on Friday evening with each coach sharing thoughts from the current season and features a guest speaker, 2016 Olympics silver medalist Paul Chelimo.
 
Chelimo, a Kenyan native who competed at UNC-Greensboro in college, was the silver medalist in the 5K race for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
 
The conference championship meet will prepare teams for the NCAA DII Midwest Regional held in Cedarville in hopes of qualifying for the NCAA DII Championships at Angel Mounds in Evansville, Ind.
 
In the five years since the conference has held a conference cross-country meet, Cedarville has been the only team to win the team championship trophies. Both the men and women’s will attempt to go for an increasingly rare six-peat on Saturday.
 
As many as four Great Midwest teams on the women’s side have been represented in the USTFCCCA Top-25 Poll at a given time and the men have also had strong representation in both the national and weekly regional rankings.
 
Fans can follow the event on the Great Midwest official Twitter and Instagram feeds (@greatmidwestac) for coverage on social media. The meet will be streamed live on the Great Midwest Digital Network by clicking here.
 
Men
 
Cedarville senior Daniel Michalski has consistently paced the men’s side of the conference in meets that he has entered in, no surprise given his momentum from a national indoor track title in the 3K steeplechase. He currently owns the top two 8K times for the season and is a two-time Great Midwest Athlete of the Week.
 
Michalski, along with teammate and Great Midwest Athlete of the Week Ethan Sullivan will look to extend the Yellow Jackets’ win streak.
 
This year, there will be some challenges to continuing the historic run. Cedarville graduated their top two finishers in the race from last year in Wyatt Hartman and Matt Pelletier. More than ever, each program will need to rely on team depth in order to make a serious championship run.
 
This could open the door for a school like Walsh. Walsh is the only men’s program currently ranked in the Top 25 of the USTFCCCA Poll at 19th and owns three of the top five 8K team times in the league this season. The Cavaliers have been led this season by juniors Steven Kapes and Jacob Kernell, both of whom own top five times in the 8K distance this season. And don’t forget Hillsdale, which was the preseason favorite as voted upon by the coaches.
 
Other names who will look to make an impact are Trevecca senior Brandon Laws, who will be in a whole different comfort zone running on his home course, and Malone junior George McCartney, last season’s Great Midwest Runner of the Year. The Pioneers also feature 2016 Freshman of the Year Mike Jankowski.
 
Women
 
Attempting to dethrone Cedarville is going to easier said than done for the women’s pool. But the overall performance of the teams makes for a valid argument that women’s cross country could be the league’s most talented sport across the board.
 
Walsh and Hillsdale both are ranked in the USTFCCCA Poll at ninth and 10th, respectively. On paper, Walsh junior Sarah Berger looks to be the one to beat with the overall 6K and 5K conference records. She is a three-time Great Midwest Athlete of the Week and it’s hard to fathom she was playing soccer a year ago.
 
Other individuals looking to take the title of Great Midwest Runner of the Year include conference athlete of the week winners like Hillsdale’s senior Hannah McIntyre, Malone junior Hannah Thompson, who both own top-10 6K times, as well as the most recent winner, Findlay’s Taylor Bolinger.
 
The Pioneers, last year’s conference runner-up in both men’s and women’s races, have made several appearances in the national rankings over the course of this season.
 
Cedarville has also been ranked in the Top 25 for most of the season, despite the fact that senior Carsyn Koch, who finished second at last year’s conference meet, has yet to compete in a meet this season.
 
Replacing Koch, an indoor/outdoor track superstar, along with last year’s Great Midwest Runner of the Year Olivia Esbenshade, who graduated, is a tough obstacle to overcome.
 
The Yellow Jackets still have plenty of team depth and national championship experience with Alaina Spears and Christy Jesson along with Kayla Casaletto.