Thirty-six teams have had a chance to settle in on the news that they’ve qualified for the 70th-Annual NAIA Men’s Cross Country National Championship, and now, all that’s left is to turn in that punched ticket to Tallahassee, Fla., on the course at Apalachee Regional Park.

At the end of last week, 20 conferences had automatic qualifiers, including the top-ranked team in the NAIA, The Master’s (Calif.), as the Mustangs won the Great Southwest championship on a picture-perfect day in Glendale, Ariz., claiming the GSAC team trophy by a margin of nine points over No. 8 Embry-Riddle (Ariz.).

The Crossroads League and the Cascade Collegiate Conference led all conferences with five of the 36 teams in the field, each, and one of those Crossroads teams is No. 2 Indiana Wesleyan, as the Wildcats picked up six first-place votes in the final rating.

In the Cascade, a tightly contested team championship saw the top five teams all place within 22 points of one another, with sixth-ranked Eastern Oregon leading the way. The Mountaineers won the championship over No. 10 Southern Oregon. SOU, defending national champion College of Idaho, and Trinity Western (B.C.), all in the field, were separated by a total of four points in the CCC championship.

In the Southern States, Mobile (Ala.) claimed its automatic bid in the championship by one point, and in the Sooner Athletic Conference, Oklahoma City claimed a 30-point win to earn its spot in the field.

Three conferences – the Appalachian Athletic Conference, the Heart of America Athletic Conference, and the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference – received two bids by having 12 or more competing teams, with a second-place team rated inside the NAIA top 30.

Park (Mo.) surprised Mount Mercy (Iowa) in the Heart, but MMU did make the field with the 29th-most points in the final rating. In the KCAC, Saint Mary (Kan.) continued a dominant run of conference titles, and Kansas Wesleyan qualified in second place, tied with Park in the rating at No. 24.

The AAC also got its second bid in, as Montreat (N.C.) qualified with the 28th-most rating points after finishing second behind Milligan (Tenn.) at the conference championship.

The NAIA will crown a new individual champion, as the top individual returner to the 2025 field from the 2024 championship is Jack Anderson, from The Master’s, who finished fourth last season. In all, from last year’s top 10, only Anderson and Corban (Ore.) junior Jack Gladfelter, who finished eighth, will be in the 2025 championship.

The 2025 NAIA Men’s Cross Country Championship gets underway at 9:30 a.m. ET, with awards scheduled for approximately 11 a.m. ET. The championship and awards ceremony will air live on NAIA Network and Urban Edge Network, with links, apps, and information on smart TV viewing at www.naia.org/watch.

For a complete list of qualifiers, the 2025 NAIA Men’s Cross Country Qualifier Announcement, which includes the full list of the championship’s Individual Qualifiers.

Earlier this week, the full field was revealed on YouTube, and along with the championship qualifiers, the NAIA released the final edition of the 2025 NAIA Men’s Cross Country Coaches’ Top 25 Rating.