MARION, IN – Heading into the men's 10,000 meter run at the NAIA National Championships, Nathan Martin had his sights set on the #1 seed in the event, John Gilbertson of The Masters College (CA).  Gilbertson had the faster time by about a minute and Martin suspected that he would have to run the race of his life to beat him. 

As it turned out, Martin ran a fantastic race, and was tactically perfect as he claimed his second NAIA National Championship this year.  Martin won the race going away in a time of 29:57.79.  Edward Taragon of Wayland Baptist finished second (30:09.38), and Gilbertson was third (30:25.89).  Spring Arbor's Kyle Anderson was 18^th with a time of 32:29.80 and was dealing with hamstring issues prior to the race.

Martin claimed the NAIA Indoor National Championship in the 5000m this winter.

"With about two and a half miles to go, I thought to myself that it was time to go, so I made a move to see what would happen," said Martin.  "So, I took off, and after the first couple of laps, I was expecting him to come up on me and make it a race, but as it turned out, there was another guy who came up (Taragon) who I knew.  Taragon hadn't posted a very fast time this year, but I knew he had run fast last year so I had to give him respect."

"I still expected Gilbertson to make a move and regardless is he did or not, I knew I had to keep pushing hard," continued Martin.  "I knew if I didn't keep pushing that Taragon would pass me and make it hard for me".

The two actually caught Martin with about a mile to go, but never got passed him as Martin found yet another gear and took matter into his own hands.

When asked about how he felt, physically, at this point, Martin replied that he was tired, but knew he had a kick left.

With four laps to go, Martin made his last move and created some distance expecting the other two to respond.  What happened after that, surprised him.

"The last thing that I wanted to have happen was to have it come down to a sprint at the finish, so with a lap and half to go, I created a gap and thought to myself that I need to extend this gap as much as possible.  The gap kept getting bigger and bigger and with 400 meters to go I just needed to finish this and then I started hearing people yelling 'good job, good job – finish up' so I thought that I might have a big enough gap to where I should be good."

"I'm shocked, actually.  I knew I had a chance to win and to become the National Champion, but to hear it, and say it," reflected Martin.  "It really shows a lot about my training, my coaches, and my teammates always supporting me and everything coming together to produce this.

The soft spoken, humble runner from Three Rivers, Michigan almost seems uncomfortable in the limelight, but there was more to celebrate for Spring Arbor T&F.

Carissa Hudson qualified for the 1500 meter final with a qualifying time of 4:40.70 which was the third fastest time of the day.  Her bid for an NAIA National Championship will take place on Saturday at 3:00pm.

Both the men's and women's 4X800 meter relay teams qualified to compete at the Championships, but neither team made it out of the qualifying heats.

Martin and Bryan Burk will compete in the Marathon which will begin on Saturday Morning at 6:00am