Aidan Efaw
Harding’s cross country teams traveled Oct. 26 to Ada, Oklahoma with high hopes for the Great American Conference (GAC) Championship meet. They returned to Searcy with a historic win. Freshman Josphat Meli from Eldoret, Kenya became the first freshman to win the individual championship in the GAC’s 14-year history, winning the 8K race with a time of 24:36.19. Meli’s win gave the Bisons their fifth individual title, their first since 2021.
Meli said the win felt even better than his other race wins this season, but he’s not satisfied with just a conference championship.
“If I race for five races, and I win five out of five, or four out of five, I’m good,” Meli said. “So far, I’ve lost one. I still have two: regionals and nationals. So, I’m looking to fulfill my dream of five over five or six over six, and it won’t be five of five or six of six, so I’m looking for five over six.”
Meli’s win pushed the Bisons to a second-place finish behind East Central, making it six straight top-three finishes in the GAC Championship meet. Harding’s scoring runners finished 2nd, 7th, 12th, 14th and 15th, with Meli and senior Luke Walling winning First Team All-GAC honors, while juniors Noah Haileab and Nate Perry and sophomore Arnaud des Boscs got Second Team All-GAC honors. Sophomore Ryan McCarn and junior Tucker Allen finished outside of the scoring position but also earned Second Team All-GAC.
Head coach Don Hood was happy with the team’s performance and was proud of their hard work throughout the regular season.
“I was really pleased at our conference meet,” Hood said. “East Central is one of the top five teams in the country, probably, so to be as close as we were to them —last year they had the top five runners, maybe even the top seven, and were just dominant, and we broke them up, so that says we’re getting better.”
Hood hopes their strong finish will translate to a great effort in the upcoming NCAA Regionals in Joplin, Missouri this weekend.
