VANCOUVER, Wash. – [COMBINED RESULTS] Milligan (Tenn.) captured its first national championship in school history by claiming the 66^th Annual NAIA Men’s Cross Country National Championship at Fort Vancouver National Historic Championship Course on Friday.

The Buffs also took home the women’s title, making them the third program in NAIA history to sweep the team titles at the National Championship.  

The Buffs posted a team score of 115 points to beat out national runner-up St. Mary (Kan.), which finished with 175 points. Indiana Wesleyan took third with 186 points, while St. Francis (Ill.) grabbed fourth (215 points) and College of Idaho rounded out the top-five with 222 points.

Oklahoma City’s Zouhair Talbi won the men’s 8k individual title with a time of 24 minutes, 43.1 seconds, beating out the field by 13 seconds. It marks Talbi’s second individual title after winning the 2020 championship just seven months ago. This is the third consecutive year a Star has won the individual title.

Talbi’s teammate Shimales Abebe and Logan Hunt of College of Idaho battled for second place, with Abebe putting in a final kick to just edge out Hunt in the finish. Abebe finished with a time of 24:56.6, while Hunt clocked in at 24:58.9.  Luke Pohl of Cornerstone (Mich.) crossed the finish line in 25:09.7 and Emad Bashir-Mohammed of Friends (Kan.) rounded out the top-five finishers with a time of 25:10.2.

Following the race, Milligan (Tenn.) head coach Chris Layne was named the 2021 NAIA Men’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.

The top 40 finishers were named 2021 NAIA Men’s Cross Country All-Americans.