TULSA, Okla. -- Freshman Derek Nájera led a tightly packed Golden Eagle scoring five Thursday night (Sept. 3) as the John Brown University men's cross country team opened the 2026 season with an eighth-place finish among 14 teams at the Rogers State (Okla.) Distance After Dark at the Mohawk Sports Complex.
Nájera covered the four-mile course in 21:20 to finish 30th overall, helping JBU score 223 points with a team time of 1:49:02. Oklahoma Baptist won the meet with 45 points and a team time of 1:42:58.
Senior Zach Briscoe followed Nájera in 46th at 21:43 before a pair of sophomores crossed within five seconds of one another. Daniel Ogomo finished 59th in 21:54 and Ethan Elder took 62nd in 21:59. Freshman Andrew Dawson rounded out the scoring five in 65th at 22:02, leaving just 42 seconds between JBU's first and fifth scorers.
As with the women's race earlier in the evening, head coach Peter Cunningham used the opener as an opportunity to knock off racing rust and work through specific tactics. On the flat soccer-field loop, Cunningham sent his runners out in controlled packs for roughly the first half before allowing them to work their way through the field. Temperatures remained around 90 degrees despite the 10:30 p.m. start.
"I'm incredibly proud of how the squad executed the assignment for the night," Cunningham said. "We typically use this meet to shake off the racing rust and practice various racing tactics. We assign relatively controlled paces to each pack for about the first half of the race, then challenge them to hunt as many people as possible from there. This meet gives us a lot of confidence for what the season has in store."
John Brown returns to action Friday night (Sept. 11), at the Queen City After Dark – hosted by Missouri State, Drury (Mo.) and Evangel (Mo.) – in Springfield, Mo.
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