In her first season in the NAIA, Kenai’s Jayna Boonstra is headed to nationals.

The junior at Carroll College placed 12th at the Frontier Conference Championships, covering the 6-kilometer course in Billings, Mont., in a personal-best 23 minutes, 10.5 seconds. Boonstra crossed the line as the fourth scorer for the Saints to narrowly capture the team title.

Boonstra was a part of a Carroll (Mont.) quartet that placed ninth through 12th individually to earn All-Conference honors, while narrowly edging Montana Tech by seven points. By virtue of winning the conference championships, the Saints auto-qualified for the NAIA National Championships.

Carroll amassed 58 points to earn their fifth team title in six years.

Not to mention, the Frontier Conference expanded by six teams, following the cessation of NSAA conference operations earlier this spring.

Ranked No. 20 in the NAIA national poll, Carroll College last qualified for nationals as a team in 2023, which included then-junior Erika Arthur of Soldotna.

Arthur graduated earlier this spring and essentially swapped with Boonstra — another standout who hails from the Kenai Peninsula. Boonstra was a two-time Alaska state cross country champion (D2) for Kenai Central in 2020 and 2021.

She transferred from Division II Colorado Mesa, where she ran and skied for the Mavericks, following the end of the academic year.

This season, Boonstra has proven she is the real deal for the Fighting Saints, running a then-5K collegiate best (19:39) in her season-opener and later scoring a lifetime best of 18:39 less than two months later.

And now, she lowered her 6K time to 23:10, shaving 49 seconds from her personal best when it mattered most.

With her national qualifier in the bag, Boonstra’s NAIA career is just starting to take off.

Also among the winner’s circle at the Frontier Conference Championships was Anchorage’s Eniah Boseman.

The Rocky Mountain senior and East High grad finished 75th (29:21) in the 8K race, as the Battlin’ Bears earned their second men’s cross country conference title in program history and first since 2020.

Boseman picked up running during his senior year at East High and committed to Dawson Community College in 2021, where he competed for two years before transferring to Rocky Mountain College.

Ranked No. 6 in the NAIA national poll, Rocky Mountain put all five scorers in the top-13 to tally 38 points, outdueling Carroll (Mont.) by a 12-point margin. By winning the conference championships, the Battlin’ Bears punched their ticket to the NAIA National Championships.

On the West Coast, Haines’ Luke Davis was a part of Eastern Oregon’s championship-winning team in his debut at the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championships.

Davis, a junior, navigated the men’s 8K course in Independence, Ore., in 26:40 to finish 53rd.

The Mountaineers scored 71 points to earn their second conference title in three years, edging Southern Oregon by 18 points.

Ranked No. 10 in the NAIA national poll, Eastern Oregon also beat defending CCC and NAIA national champion College of Idaho, which took third. By winning the conference championships, the Mounties nabbed an auto-qualifier to the NAIA National Championships.

Head Coach Ben Welch — a Wasilla High grad and the 1980 Alaska cross country state champion — was named CCC Men’s Coach of the Year for the 14th time in his career.

At the Sun Conference Championships, Anchorage’s Billy Mueller took 26th (27:25) in the men’s 8K race for Southeastern U. in Hardeeville, S.C.

Mueller, a sophomore and West High grad, was the seventh runner for the Fire, which narrowly took runner-up with 64 points — two points ahead of SCAD Savannah — while trailing Ave Maria (32).

At the Great Plains Athletic Conference Championships, Dillingham’s Demetry Hoseth took 62nd (28:51) in the men’s 8K race for Briar Cliff in Ashland, Neb.

Hoseth, a sophomore, was the top finisher for the Chargers, improving by four spots from last fall.

The NAIA National Championships will be held at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Fla., on Nov. 21.