Neither the men’s and women’s cross country teams nor Jason Potsander, for whom the award was named, were expecting the addition of a new award when they gathered for the annual awards banquet on Sunday, Feb. 9. In years prior, head coach Rustin Nyce handed out “The GCXC Heart Award”, but this year it was presented to one male and one female athlete under a new name: “The Jason Potsander Character Award”.  Jason Potsander is a 2001 graduate of Goshen College who has faced many physical challenges in his long history of running. As a student, he competed on the...

By Kadie Daye • February 16, 2020 • Sports

Max Burkholder, a senior biology major, is one of seven Maple Leafs who will compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics cross country championship race in Vancouver, Washington, on Friday. The conference race (which took place on Nov.  9) had a lot of pressure on it for your team to make nationals. Did you feel pressure going into it? Yeah, I definitely did, especially since I’m a senior. I knew it could have been my last race, so I was like, “I’m just gonna go.”  There was definitely some motivation from that. Tell me about the race.  You were...

By Sierra Ross Richer • November 29, 2019 • Sports

The men’s cross country team has qualified for the NAIA National Championship for the second time in the program’s history after finishing fourth overall at Saturday’s Bethel University meet. The men’s cross country team previously qualified in 2014 when the team was led by Doug Yoder as head coach. Current head coach Rustin Nyce was in his first season as an assistant at the time. The last Nationals trip for a GC team was in 2016 when the women’s basketball team qualified. Before then, the men’s soccer team qualified in 1971, 1973, 1977 and 2006. The women’s basketball team also...

By Ben Cotton • November 13, 2019 • Sports

If you asked Dan Kipchumba to describe the beginning of his running career, which began in February 2017, he would label those early days as “absolutely terrible.”  Running purely for the satisfaction, Kipchumba began building a base for what would become an opportunity to participate in one of the most successful seasons Goshen College’s Cross Country team has seen, and a ticket out of his hometown of Eldoret, Kenya.  “My journey to Goshen College is a little mysterious,” Kipchumba said. “I was on my way to a university in West Virginia when I decided to stop and greet my long-time...

By Spencer Waterman • November 1, 2019 • Sports

The men and women’s cross country teams put together strong showings at the Louisville Sports Commission Classic last Saturday; with the men posting the fastest team time in program history.  The men finished 33rd overall, good for fourth among NAIA schools. Senior Vincent Kibunja clocked in first for Goshen for the third race in a row. He achieved a personal best as well as the second-fastest run in the schools program history with a time of 24:49.7, good for 68th overall.  Salvador Escamilla, a junior, finished 134th overall with a personal best of 25 minutes and 15.9 seconds; the eighth...

By Zack Begly • October 9, 2019 • Sports

The Goshen College men’s cross country team ended a four-year hiatus when they returned to the NAIA coaches top-25 poll last Thursday. The team received 282 points on the 21 ballots which places them in 17th place. The Maple Leafs are the fourth Crossroads League team on the list and they currently sit behind Indiana Wesleyan (14th), Taylor (12th) and Huntington (9th).   Goshen finished ahead of Aquinas College (18th), Siena Heights (22nd) and Cornerstone University (27th); three teams that the Maple Leafs have already defeated this season, with the most recent victory coming at this past Friday’s Knight-Raider Invitational hosted...

By Megan Bower • September 25, 2019 • Sports

The Goshen College men’s cross country team had eight athletes achieve personal bests this past Saturday at the Knight Invitational at Calvin College. The Maple Leafs finished eighth overall and second among NAIA schools. Goshen secured three top 40 places as Vincent Kibunja led the Maple Leafs with a 15th-place finish. The senior posted a time of 25 minutes and 40 seconds which was the 20th-fastest time in the programs history. Liam Ellis, a sophomore, was next to cross the line for the Maple Leafs with a time of 27:07.2, in 37th-place. He was followed three places behind by Salvador...

By Megan Bower • September 12, 2019 • Sports

Vincent Kibunja is a junior from Nakuru, Kenya. He was the 2017-18 Maple Leaf Male Athlete of the Year, and currently holds the second-fastest 8k time in school history (24:54.6). How long have you lived in the U.S.? More than two years. Have you been able to go back home at all? I haven’t gone back to Kenya. But I’m going to be going next summer with my fiancé and her family. You were at Monroe College in New York City before coming to Goshen. How did you find out about Monroe? It was on Mar. 1 of 2016. I...

By Siana Emery • January 17, 2019 • Features

The Goshen College men’s cross country team placed third and the women ninth at the Crossroads League conference championship meet at Taylor University last Saturday. The men also had seven runners finish in the top 50, including two in the top 20. Vincent Kibunja, a junior, finished third with a time of 26:29.3, qualifying him for his second straight NAIA cross country championship. Kibunja also achieved his second straight all-conference honor after finishing in the top 15 overall. Liam Ellias, a first-year, finished in 16th-place with a time of 27:24.7, the best individual placement of his career. Elias also made...

By Zack Begly • November 7, 2018 • Sports

Both the men and women’s cross country teams finished fifth in their respective races this past Friday, and 11 runners improved on their season high in the second meet of the year. The teams traveled to Upland, Indiana, to compete in the Ray Bullock Invitational, hosted by Taylor University. On the women’s side, all four runners ran at season highs. Junior Siana Emery, decreased her time from 23:07.5 to 23:05.9. Junior Jenae Stutzman, improved from 23:22.4 to 23:18.9. Junior Megan Graber, shaved seconds off her time from the Indiana Wesleyan Twilight Classic, running a time of 24:00.2 at IWU, and...

By Zack Begly • September 23, 2018 • Sports

The Goshen College Men and Women’s Cross Country teams began their seasons this past Friday at the Indiana Wesleyan University Twilight Invitational. The women failed to place in the top 10 as they only had four runners participate rather than the required five, however, the men placed fourth at the event. The women did have two runners finish in the top 100 on the evening-juniors Siana Emery and Jenae Stutzman. Emery finished first among all Goshen runners and 93 overall, with a time of 23:07:5. Stutzman finished in 98th place with a time of 23:22:4. “Personally, I’m happy,” Emery said. “My...

By Zack Begly • September 11, 2018 • Sports

Chelsea Foster recently finished 93rd at the NAIA national cross country meet in Vancouver, Wash. Vincent Kibunja finished 96th in the men’s race. Foster and Kibunja were the lone Goshen qualifiers for the Nov. 18 race, but they aren’t ready to be done. “It wasn’t bad for my first time at nationals, but I wasn’t satisfied,” said Foster. These two runners are special, according to cross country coach Rustin Nyce. “They both kind of have that same mentality where they don’t mind doing the hard work and they know doing the work is going to benefit them,” Nyce said. When...

By Kristin Troyer • November 30, 2017 • News

Sophomores Vincent Kibunja and Chelsea Foster each posted personal-best times and top-100 finishes to cap their 2017 campaigns on Saturday, Nov. 18th at the NAIA Men’s and Women’s Cross Country National Championship at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. Kibunja’s national birth continued the program’s deeply-rooted success as the Monroe College transfer and Nakuru, Kenya native helped mark the seventh consecutive year a Maple Leaf man has reached the national stage. Kibunja did not disappoint. Kibunja ticked a second off his previous personal record set at the end of September in Louisville to finish in 26 minutes, 13 seconds, a...

By Chandler Ingle • November 30, 2017 • Sports

Both men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled just up the road to St. Patrick’s Park in South Bend this past Friday evening to compete in the Bethel College Invitational. The men claimed a top-10 finish while the women tabbed 14th. Steven Cranston, a sophomore, topped teammate Vincent Kibunja for the first time this season, posting a season-best mark to finish ninth overall. Cranston’s time of 26:08.4 was nearly 13 seconds quicker than his previous season best and just 50 ticks behind race winner Tony Floyd of Madonna University. His ninth-place finish put him second among Crossroads League runners. Kibunja,...

By Chandler Ingle • October 12, 2017 • Sports

The Goshen College men’s and women’s cross country teams finished in third and fifth place respectively Friday in the highly anticipated Crossroads League Preview hosted by Marian University on the Northwoods Church Course. Vincent Kibunja, a Monroe College sophomore transfer and Kenya native did not compete in the Leafs’ opening event, but came out of the gate strong in his first race in Goshen purple with a finish of 28 minutes, 17.77 seconds. Kibunja finished in 14th place, nearly a minute and a half behind Taylor University runner Josh Roth, who finished in 26:43.91. Goshen also saw four other runners...

By Chandler Ingle • September 21, 2017 • Sports