VANCOUVER, Wash. – [Final Results] Ellyse Tingelstad finished second overall and four runners from College of Idaho made the Top 10 as the Yotes claimed the 2023 NAIA Women’s Cross Country National Championship.
College of Idaho finished with 68 points, topping The Master’s (Calif.), which finished with 92. In addition to Tingelstad, Sage Martin, Abbey Shirts and Kahea Figueira all finished in the Top 10. It was a complete team effort to win the title as the Yotes previous best had been runner up on four occations.
Addy Wiley of Huntington (Ind.) was the 2023 NAIA Women’s Cross Country Individual Champion. The sophomore completed the 6K championship race with a time of 21:04.2. Tingelstad finished just 12 seconds behind with a time of 21:16.1 for her fourth All-American honor. Both College of Idaho runners Martin (21:39.4) and Shirts (21:41.9) finished within seconds of each other at third and fifth respectively. Figueira (21:46.5) completed the race in seventh place.
Alauna Carstens was the next closest Cascade Collegiate Conference competitor, landing in 15th. Carstens (22.05.3) is a sophomore, individual competitor from The Evergreen State College. Alejandra Lopez (22:28.1) of Southern Oregon University managed 33rd place while teammate Lauren Forster (22:30.4) came right behind in 38th. Brooklyn Shell of Lewis-Clark State College rounded out the CCC All-American honorees with a 39th place finish.
SOU recorded an eighth-place team finish with a total of 317 points. Lewis-Clark State College was the next CCC team at eleventh with 352 points. Eastern Oregon University followed at 30th with 831 total points. Oregon Tech was the final conference team represented with a 34th place finish (860 points).
Following the race, College of Idaho’s Dominic Bolin was named the 2023 NAIA Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year. This is just the second year of Bolin’s head coaching tenure.