Truman Johnson was named the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Men's Cross Country Runner of the Year for his performance at the 2025 GPAC Championship. Johnson headlines a list of three Defenders to earn all-conference honors for the 2025 season.
Competing in his second conference championship, Johnson, a sophomore from Saline, Mich., won Saturday's 8K race with a personal-best time of 24:45. Johnson finished five seconds ahead of the second place runner, Alvin Keter (Doane), and surpassed his previous best time by 16 seconds. This was Johnson's first collegiate win in cross country and his third top 10 finish of the season. Johnson is the fifth Defender runner to earn the GPAC's top honor:
Johnson is one of three Dordt runners to be named all-conference as he is joined by
Luke Swanson and
Tage Hulstein. (the top 15 individuals to finish at the GPAC Championship are all-conference)
Swanson earns the postseason honor for the third consecutive season. The senior placed fifth in Saturday's race, his best-ever finish at the conference championship, with a time of 25:02. This was the Swanson's fourth top 10 finish of the season and eighth for his career. Swanson previously finished eighth at the 2024 championship and ninth at the 2023 event.Â
Hulstein, who earns the postseason honor the third time, completed Saturday's championship race with a season-best time of 25:12 and in ninth place. This was Hulstein's second top 10 finish of the season, seventh of his career. Hulstein also finished ninth at the 2024 GPAC Championship and 10th in 2023.
The Defenders finished second as a team at last weekend's championship with 50 points. They received votes in the final NAIA Coaches' poll released earlier this week by the national office. Both Johnson and Swanson will compete at the NAIA National Championship next week (Nov.21) in Tallahassee, Fla.
