Wichita State cross country runner breaks program record at AAC championship race
The Wichita State cross country team missed the podium at the American Athletic Conference championship races in Greenville, North Carolina, on Saturday, but still came away with a pair of highlights.
For the women, who placed fifth, junior Lucy Ndungu returned from injury for her first race in nearly a month to finish runner-up in the 6-kilometer race in a time of 20 minutes, 45 seconds, which was six seconds behind champion Gemma Rebollo of Tulane.
“A lot of people would mentally struggle and not be able to come back from that,” WSU cross country coach Kirk Hunter said of Ndungu, who was a two-time NJCAA champion at Cloud County. “But she has the strength and the knowledge and she’s smart enough that she knows if she just goes out and does her best, sticks her nose in there and tries, good things might happen. And she did that today. She’s extremely impressive.”
The men’s team, which took fourth, also had a standout performance in senior Jackson Caldwell, who broke the program record in the 8-kilometer race with a personal-best time of 23:31 to place 15th.
The record was previously held by Clayton Duchatschek, who set it in 2022, as Caldwell, an Overland Park native, edged it by three seconds.
“A cross country course can be short, it can be long, it can be downhill, it can be uphill, muddy, not muddy, so you just can’t put an asterisk on it,” Hunter told GoShockers.com. “He did what he had to do. He came in, battled and got himself an all-conference situation, and there should be nobody that takes that away from what he accomplished. From having the school record to getting all-conference, he deserves all the recognition because he did it.”
Tulsa won its 10th consecutive team championship on the men’s side, while Tulane upset Tulsa in the women’s race to capture its first AAC team championship.
Another all-conference performer for the Shockers was junior Miranda Dick, who made a move late in the race to work her way all the way to a seventh-place finish in a 21-second personal-best time of 21:09.
The women’s team also featured runs from Sarah Bertry (47th, 21:52), Lubna Aldulaimi (51st, 21:57), Isabelle Hartnett (62nd, 22:56), Jenna Muma (23:13), Lea Jerkovic (23:29) and Peyton Pogge (23:45).
The men’s team also included Zander Cobb (18th, 23:42), Adam Rzentkowski (20th, 23:45), Maize South graduate Trey Rios (21st, 23:46), Cesar Ramirez (34th, 24:11), Aidan Reyna (24:34), Kapaun Mt. Carmel graduate Erik Enriquez (24:35), Jacob Meyers (25:04) and Riley Vandaveer (25:38).
WSU will be back in action to compete in the NCAA Midwest Regional on Friday, Nov. 10, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, for a chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
