Jude DeVries crosses the finish line as the 5000m winner at the NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships in Marion, Ind. Friday.
MARION, Ind. — Jude DeVries fought off a challenge at the end to win the men’s 5k at the 2025 NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships Friday in Marion, Ind.
The sophomore transfer from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo started the 12.5-lap race in the very back of the pack, moved into the second position at the end of the first lap, and then moved to the front on the second lap. From there he opened up as much as a 50-meter lead before fending off a last-lap challenge to win by five meters.
“First of all, I give all glory to God,” DeVries said after the race. “I’m not here without Him. I have a lot of faith and a lot of confidence. Going into the race, humbly, I felt I was the best runner today. I just had to go out with that mindset because a lot of (the other competitors) ran the 10k on Wednesday. So I felt that gave me an advantage because I was running on fresh (legs). Honestly, I did not think I’m the most fit today, but being fresh I thought, ‘I think I’m the best runner.'”
This is TMU’s eighth NAIA national championship of the 2024-25 school year. The Mustangs won six individual titles and two team titles in women’s cross country and men’s volleyball.
DeVries’ time of 14:27.99 was less than a second in front of Southern Oregon’s Frankie Maciel.
“I’ve got to be honest, that was his guts and his brain that won that race,” said TMU Head Coach Daniel Rush. “Usually, when someone tries to go win a race like that from the front, in the wind, against a good field, usually that doesn’t work. But Jude had an incredibly good race and an incredibly smart race. So I’m glad he did what most others wouldn’t have had the boldness to do. Clearly it paid off, and praise the Lord for that.”
“Running that way with people not going out with me, gave me even more confidence,” DeVries said. “I got really relaxed at one point. I knew I had their respect the more laps that went by, and I knew that with four laps to go I can finish in the 4:20s. So I knew those last four were going to be my strongest. I knew that if i could hold them for three laps, I’m going to be really good.”
The lead was 50 meters with two to go, which began to close with each step. In that penultimate lap, DeVries ran a 1:08.9, but Maciel ran 1:06.1, closing the distance. In the final 400 meters, Maciel ran 3.5 seconds faster, but the early lead by DeVries was too great to overcome.
“I knew they were going to catch up because leading for that many laps is very brutal mentally,” DeVries said. “In my mind I was saying, ‘If one person passes me, I’ve got to stay calm and go with them.’ In my mind I was preparing to get passed, but when I didn’t I was grateful to God. He was gracious to me and gave me the win.”
Emmanuel De Leon ran in the same race, finishing 16th with a 15:22.65.
Other final day results included an 11th-place finish for Nate Day in the men’s 1500m final (3:58.79), 20th for Josh Williamson in the shot put (16.02 meters), fifth for Hannah Fredericks in the women’s 5k (17:04.17), and a third place for Caleb Pouliot in the pole vault with a jump of 4.95.
“My career at Master’s I would describe as a journey of sanctification,” said Pouliot, a winner of two NAIA national championships and a runner-up. “Truthfully, I took The Master’s Way to heart. I made myself memorize the WORSHIP acronym, and when I felt myself going one way, I would recite it and it would pull me back on track. So that was a huge help to have that as a basis for my athletics at Master’s. Seeing how a Christian should compete, you have to be more selfless and sacrifice more, and it’s a harder road. But when it comes to the Lord’s hands and how I perform, that’s who I try to leave it up to.”
Hannah Fredericks closes out a career that will go down as one of the greatest athletic careers in Master’s history. She finished fifth place in the women’s 5K on Friday and overall in her career won or was part of five national championships and was named an All-American 19 times.
“The Lord did far more than I could have ever asked or hoped in my college career,” Fredericks said. “And even just this season in general. He has been so good to bless me with the gift of running, but also blessed me with the people that came with it, and it is those lasting friendships that ultimately cause me to strive to be more like Christ.”
No other team in the history of The Master’s athletics has had the success like the track & field team has had over the last few years. As Coach Rush and Assistant Coach Micaiah Scott both said at the end of the competition Friday, it is an end to an era.
“I think you just see the hand of the Lord in everything,” Rush said, reflecting back on the year in particular and the journey the team has taken over the last few years. “It’s been a year with a few different stories. Some athletes finished out an incredible career and finished very strong and finished an era. You look at Ellen Palmgren, you look at Hannah Fredericks, you look at Caleb Pouliot, Josh Williamson and all of these seniors, it just closes this chapter. But it has been a year of extreme sickness, extreme injury and a lot of challenges. A lot of athletes maybe didn’t finish as well as they hoped to, but you saw Christ in everything. And you saw a lot of new people with a lot of great and promising things. Jude and Hunter and Emma and all the people who will be coming back next year with a lot of confidence and knowing they belong at the front. It was a year of many stories but you saw the hand of God in everything.”
To learn more about TMU Athletics, visit gomustangs.com.
