TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- Seventh-ranked Rocky Men's Cross Country competes in its sixth NAIA National Championship in program history on Friday morning. 

Rocky Men's Cross Country earned its sixth team qualification in program history following its Frontier Conference Championship victory in Billings two weeks ago. The Championship win marked the second in program history overall, netting five All-Conference honorees (John Spinti, Corbyn Svec, Justin Glass, Matthew Conrad, Zachary Zwiesler), as well as head coach Mike McLean earning Frontier Conference Men's XC Coach of the Year. 

Rocky's previous ranking of sixth in the NAIA is the highest in program history, dropping one spot in the final NAIA Coaches' top-25 poll last week. Rocky last ran in the NAIA National Championship as a team in 2023, where Jackson Wilson was crowned the individual NAIA National Champion, the first in program history, leading Rocky to an 18th-place finish. 

The Battlin' Bears will be squarely in the mix and seek to record the program's best finish at the NAIA National Championship. Their current best team finish is 12th at the 2019 NAIA National Championship, where the Battlin' Bears recorded four runners in the top 75. 

The men's 8K race will begin at 7:30 a.m. (MT) / 9:30 a.m. (ET). The race will be live-streamed on the Urban Edge Network, and live results will be available on PrimeTime Timing.