Columbia Captures AMC Women’s Cross Country Championship

Written by Bruna Niederkorn, AMC Assistant Commissioner

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – For the first time since 2021 and the seventh time overall, Columbia College has claimed the 2025 American Midwest Conference (AMC) Women's Cross Country Championship title.

The Cougars placed six runners in the top 10, led by Hailey Gerard, who claimed the individual title with a time of 23:15.72 and earned AMC Runner of the Year honors. Gerard outpaced Cottey's Madalenn Fee (23:50.64), teammates Lauren Berhorst (24:03.69) and Xavia Cullers (24:12.58) and Cottey's Avery Morris (24:22.90) to round out the top-5 finishers.

With the victory, Columbia receives the AMC's automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship, scheduled for November 21 at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida.

In addition to the team qualifiers, the top-4 individual finishers from non-qualifying teams will also compete in the National Championship. Pending at-large selections, Fee, Morris, Williams Baptist's Marizenne Jonker and Cottey's Jessie Mick will represent the AMC.

Just outside the top-5, Jonker earned the highest championship finish in program history for Williams Baptist, placing sixth with a time of 24:52.05. She also became the first Eagle to earn AMC All-Conference honors since 2015.
Columbia's Brenley Webb was named AMC Freshman of the Year after finishing seventh in 24:53.63, while Sharon Strydom from WBU was tabbed AMC Newcomer of the Year honors with a 16th-place finish (27:46.78).

The Columbia College coaching staff led by head coach Brennan Cape and assistants Mason McCaleb and Ryan Bontz was named Coaching Staff of the Year.

The AMC also recognized the Champions of Character Team which includes one individual from each team selected by her coach and teammates judged to best represent the Five Core Values of the NAIA Champions of Character Initiative – Respect, Responsibility, Integrity, Sportsmanship and Servant Leadership.  Individuals selected to the Champions of Character Team are below.
 
The Conference also released the 2025 women's cross country Academic All-Conference Team which includes individuals that have a minimum 3.0 grade point average and have completed at least one semester at their institution. The list of Academic All-Conference honorees is below.

Team Scores:

 
Top-10 Individuals (All-Conference):

 
2025 AMC Individual Awards:

 
2025 AMC Champion of Character:

 
2025 AMC Academic All-Conference: