Cloud Country Cross Country Teams Compete Under the Lights in 2022 Season Opener
Under the lights to open their 2022 campaign, the Cloud County Community College women's cross country would finish sixth alongside a ninth-place finish from the Cloud County men at the 2022 Terry Masterson Twilight Invitational hosted by Hutchinson Community College at Fun Valley Sports Complex in Hutchinson, Kansas on Thursday, September 1st.
Finishing with team totals of 178 points for the women and 229 points for the men, both T-Bird teams would finish in the top half of the team fields as the women's race would feature 14 teams with 19 men's teams competing in the final race of the night with over 340 total athletes competing. Of the squads in action, a majority would hail from the Sunflower State and come from NCAA Division II, NAIA, and the NJCAA as seven of the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference's women's teams and eight men's teams would be at the meet. Winning the women's team title with five runners in the top seven would be Fort Hays State by finishing wth 21 points to beat out host Hutchinson who came in second with 85 points while Northwest Kansas Tech (48 points) would edge out Fort Hays State (50 points) to win the men's race.
"I was pleased with the girls team tonight as Melody Ochana ran great and was able to get into the top-10" said head coach Drew Mahin in a post-race interview. "The new girls are competing well and our team will only get better when we get everyone back and healthy." "As for the men, Kidus Misgina was extremely impressive tonight in running one of the best opening cross country races by a Cloud County freshman since I've been part of this program." Not only did he run a very smart race, but he also pushed the leader of the race to the wire." "As a whole, every athlete that has ran at this course before improved their time tonight and this should give us a good preview of what to expect with our Region VI Championships being held in Hutchinson later this year."
The women's race for CCCC would see sophomore Melody Ochana finish as Cloud County's highest finisher of the night on the three-mile course with an eighth-place finish in a time of 18:51.09 and would be followed by a 27th-place finish from Mary Kua in her T-Bird debut with a time of 19:55.78. First-year transfer Emmy Punches would be the next-highest finisher for Cloud County with a time of 20:27.28 (44th-place) and be followed by Aina Goir (60th, 21:00.25) and Bailey Rock (67th, 21:10.34) to account for CCCC's team score. Other women's competitors for the T-Birds on Thursday night would include freshman Hailey Sharp (80th, 21:38.24) and Aliyah Johnson (109th, 23:29.44) as both would compete for the first-time at the collegiate level.
On the men's side, it would be Kidus Misgina bringing finishing the four-mile competition with a runner-up finish in a time of 19:21.43 to earn a top-three finish in his CCCC cross country debut as both of the top-two finishers (Rodger Rotich, NW KS Tech and Misgina) would break the previous course record. Cloud County would then have sophomores Elmer Sotelo (22:19.83) and Rylan Cheney (22:30.37) finish in 52nd and 56th place, respectively, before seeing Raziel Patton post a time of 23;19.15 for an 83rd-place finish. Other runners for CCCC included Cejay Morrison with a time of 23:43.04 for a 95th place finish. Sam Pinkerton (107th, 24:04.62), Andres Young (116th, 24:32.86), and Quwayne Reid (144th, 25:44.21) as all eight members of the 2022 roster would compete in the opening meet of the year.
What's Next?
Cloud County will have next week off from competition before returning on Saturday, September 17th to take part in the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational held at Mahoney Golf Course in Lincoln, Nebraska. The meet, which is co-hosted by the University of Nebraska and Nebraska Wesleyan University is a meet that the T-Birds have competed in six of the past seven years, with 2020 being the lone year that CCCC did not race in Lincoln.