Consistency and continued excellence, with Nationals always on the mind, are the focal points for the 2025 No. 3 Taylor’s men’s cross country team, known as the Jarheads
Despite losing two seniors, this year’s roster returns all of the Trojans’ NAIA National Championship runners, including seniors Luke Harber, Ryan Hanak and Alex Ortiz, who finished as Taylor’s top three runners at Nationals.
At their first event of the year, the annual Indiana Wesleyan Twilight Invitational, Taylor finished in a strong second place ahead of No. 4 Marian, who took third. With a team time of 2:05:41, the Trojans ran their eighth-best time in school history. No. 8 Indiana Wesleyan took first with a time of 2:04:44, 29 seconds off their program record.
“After the IWU meet, we kept things in perspective,” Taylor head coach Quinn White said. “We had a lot of personal best times that day. We also had the 8th fastest team time in school history. So, we really ran well. We know where and how we can improve, and we are excited to keep loving the journey.”
The Trojans' characteristic running style was evident in the race results, with Hanak and Harber finishing together in seventh and eighth. Junior Nathan Burns and sophomore Nathan Meister placed 27th and 28th, with Meister notching a personal best of 25:28.2.
In between those four runners, returning senior and 2024 All-Crossroads League runner Joel Mumaw ran a personal-best at the event, taking 11th with a time of 25:04.6.
Harber, a 2024 NAIA All-American, described the team’s strategy of running together, rather than separately, as something that might seem counterintuitive. However, he believes that it fuels their team, rather than holding them back.
“We obviously push each other,” Harber said. “People surge and you try to stick with them, but when it gets down to the final stretch, if there’s no one else around you, it doesn’t change the points if you beat your teammate.”
The team often repeats the word ‘love’ to each other as they run, the theme word for this year’s roster. Teammates remind each other to love what they do and each other in hard workouts, training sessions and during meets.
Few other teams run together like Taylor does, but no other NAIA school talks to each other like the Trojans do. It has been a core part of White’s coaching philosophy, and as he enters his 20th and final year as the cross country head coach, every athlete has taken it to heart.
“So there’s the team word, and then everybody else has their own one,” Meister said. “It’s helpful in a race. My word is free, so I’ve been trying to work on running free without any convictions or pressures … so in a race, (hearing) ‘Come on Nathan, run free,’ something like that actually does help a lot.”
Despite not winning their first event, White sees the competition that the CL provides as a benefit. Four of the top ten teams in the NAIA are in Taylor’s conference, with IWU at No. 8, Spring Arbor ranked at No. 6 and Marian at No. 4.
“The Crossroads League has been a top league/conference in the NAIA for the last few years,” White said. “Spring Arbor did not race at IWU (Twilight Invitational), but they are right at our level. We are blessed to be in a league that pushes us to be better.”
With four events left on the schedule before Nationals, Taylor has plenty of time to continue to find their rhythm before the NAIA National Championships in late November.
The Jarheads' next event will be at the Florida State Cross Country Open on Sept. 26 in Tallahassee, Fla. before coming home to Upland on Friday, Oct. 10.
