Men's Cross Country 07.17.26

Four Titans Share MVP Honors Across Cross Country, Track & Field

Men's Cross Country 07.17.26

Four Titans Share MVP Honors Across Cross Country, Track & Field

From L-R: Joshua Otten, Weston Glei, Joey DeCasas, Jaden McKenzie

DETROIT (7/16/2026) -- Senior Joshua Otten took home a pair of MVP honors, and senior Jaden McKenzie and freshmen Joey DeCasas and Weston Glei were also honored with top performance status as the University of Detroit Mercy announced its award winners for cross country and track and field.

It is the third-straight year that Otten was named the Dominick Taddonio Most Valuable runner in cross country. He was First Team All-Horizon League by taking third at the HL meet, one of his four top-10 efforts on the season. He also recorded the second-fastest 8k time in school history at 23:55, one second shy of the school record, and registered his first top-100 finish at the Great Lakes Regional Championship.

Otten and Glei shared the MVP honors indoors. Otten scored in three events at the Horizon League Championships, taking fourth in a career-best 4:11.49 in the mile, third in school history, as well as running a leg on the sixth-place 4x400 and the seventh-place distance medley relay. Glei took bronze in the heptathlon at the indoor championships, registering a Titan record with 4,550 points, including winning the high jump at 1.89 meters, and placing second in the long jump at a season-best 6.69m and the 60-meter hurdles in 8.67.

In outdoors, McKenzie and DeCasas were named team MVP. McKenzie - who took home his third MVP award between indoor and outdoor track and field, recorded points in four events at the outdoor league showdown, taking fourth in the 400m in a career-best 47.42, fourth in school history, eighth in the 200m in 22.27, and on the runner-up 4x400 that posted the sixth-best time in school history with 3:15.03, as well as the third-place 4x100 that tallied the fifth-best Titan mark at 41.55. DeCasas won the long jump three times, including at the conference meet with a mark of 7.49 meters, just the third Titan to win the event.

Cross Country