In the last ten years, CCU Athletics has had multiple teams and individuals make it to the NCAA post-season (13 appearances). This 2015-2016 year, CCU track star, Evan Verbal would be the solo Cougar athlete to compete in the NCAA Championships which were held in Bradenton, FL on May 26^th.
 
This is Verbal's junior year, and he has made quite a name for himself at CCU, in the RMAC, and ultimately the NCAA. Verbal has impressed consistently throughout this track season, but it wasn't until the CU Invitational that he showed a promising individual season running a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 3:56.95. After this, head coach Jon Poag and Evan himself knew he could go far, which is exactly what he did.
 
Verbal competed in the RMAC Championships in early May, but trailed a couple seconds to long to make it to the NCAA Finals. He ended the 1500 with a time of 3:58.38, and came in 11^th out of 37 in his heat. Luckily there was a LAST CHANCE meet held a week later at Colorado School of Mines. This was literally Verbal's last chance to make it to the NCAA Championships.
 
With Verbal having nothing to lose and everything to gain, he ran his best time ever and set a new school record running a time of 3:51.69. This automatically qualified him for NCAAs and put him in the running to become an All-American.
 
That set head coach Jon Poag and Evan Verbal on a plane for Florida. There were two sections in the 1500 consisting of 20 runners, nine of which were from the RMAC, Verbal included. Verbal finished the race with a time of 3:55.63, missing the qualifying time he needed to make it to the finals on Saturday. Even though Evan's season would end here, the performance by Verbal this year was undeniably the best CCU has ever seen. 

"I had a great time running at nationals," said Evan Verbal. " The circumstances were really tough being in a slow heat. I would have had to outkick the fastest guys in the country to make it to the finals. But overall I learned a lot, and I got work to do."

"I am really pleased with Evan's efforts," said head coach Jon Poag. "Evan ran a good race. Championship style racing is very tactical, and unfortunately the second section had the advantage of knowing how fast they needed to run to make the finals. I am very proud of Evan's performance today and his season as a whole. Evan is leaving the track today hungry for continued success next year."

Cougar Athletics is excited for Evan's future in cross country and track, and is proud to have him advance to such a high level of competition this year.