To start the postseason of what has been a roller coaster of a regular season for the Wabash College cross country team, the Redpack entered the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championship with only one thought on their mind: leaving it all out on the course. And thanks to a Sam Vaught ’29 All-Conference finish, the young team left with some much needed experience.

Travelling to Oberlin, Ohio, the team came in ranked sixth overall in the NCAC pre-championship poll. But the focus was not on where they would finish, rather, what they could learn with such a young roster.

“It’s what we expected,” said Head Coach Tyler McCreary. “On paper we expected to be sixth. On a bad day, we might get displaced to seventh. But I also felt like we could displace Oberlin at five on a great day. In the end, we closed a great gap throughout the race. Just ran out of real estate to catch Oberlin, but felt really good about the team performance.”

Despite the finish, they still needed to prove something to themselves. And prove something they did with every runner finishing the 8,000-meter race in a career best time. Vaught led the team in a time of 25:31.11, finishing fourth overall. Vaught, who was a transfer during last spring semester, completed his first NCAC Championship with an impressive resume. The first-time NCAC Championship runner lowered his season best by 20.8 seconds to be the top finisher for the team and take fourth place overall. But it was more than just the time to celebrate. With it also came First Team All-NCAC honors as well as a NCAC Newcomer of the Year recognition as the highest finishing first year conference competitor.

“Sam’s immensely talented,” said McCreary. “He’s just a very gifted runner up front. The other part of it too is that Sam does everything right all the time from a preparation and mental perspective. He’s very grounded and also very aggressive in his approach to being as good as he can be.”

Jonathan Loney ’28 and Cooper Knoblauch ’30 were the next two scoring finishes, crossing the finish line in less than a second apart. Knoblauch was 30th overall in a time of 26:31.6 while Loney was 31st in a time of 26:32.5. Raul Delgado ’30 and Austin Baugh ’30 rounded off the Little Giant’s scoring positions with Delgado coming in at 27:51.6 and Baugh in 28:07.2 to put the Little Giants at sixth overall with 161 points in total.

“We overcame a tremendous amount of injuries this year, and just got decimated there,” said McCreary. “And so we counted on a lot of freshmen, and they weren’t expected to fill those roles so early in their career, but they ran phenomenally well all season.”

And injuries were a huge factor this season. With several runners being sidelined at one point during the season there became a huge emphasis on trusting the team.

“This team was super supportive this year,” said Loney. “We had several guys out with injuries this season, but they didn’t give up on themselves or those racing. They showed up frequently to practice and races to support us. We did the same for them, asking about their progress with recovery and supporting them through their alternative exercises.”

The Redpack looks to take seven runners to East Lansing, Michigan on November 14 to compete in the NCAA DIII Great Lakes Regional Championship. With a chance at qualifying for the NCAA DIII National Championship for Vaught, there is a lot on the line as the Redpack looks to make a final push in what has been a rocky season for the young team.

“When you have a season like this, that’s defined by the injuries and overcoming those as a program, you get an opportunity to really focus on what are some things that we need to to grow on as a program in terms of culture and professionalism and how we operate,” said McCreary. “We’ve really done a great job establishing those things and with such a young group getting experience for the next season we’ll be ready to go.”