Cloud Country Cross Country Teams Represented in First USTFCCCA NJCAA Division I Polls
The week one edition of the 2022 United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association NJCAA Division I Cross Country polls have been released with both the Cloud County women and Cloud County men's cross country teams making an appearance in this week's polls.
CCCC is ranked ninth in the first women's poll of the year with the men coming in ranked number 13 in their respective poll with three weeks of the season officially in the books.
During the first three weeks of the season, the T-Birds have competed in a pair of meets by running in the 2022 Terry Masterson Twilight Classic hosted by Hutchinson Community College on Thursday, September 1st before recently competing in the Woody Greeno/Jay Dirksen Invitational in Lincoln, Nebraska this past weekend. The Cloud County women are one of six Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference schools represented among the 23 teams that are in this week's poll while the men are one of eight KJCCC schools represented in the 24-team poll.
In the women's poll, CCCC is the second-highest ranked team from the KJCCC with number two ranked Hutchinson coming in just behind top-ranked Southern Idaho. A slew of Jayhawk Conference teams makes up the number nine through 13 ranked teams in the country, with Cloud County (nine), Butler (10), Dodge City (11), and Garden City (13) all joining the Blue Dragons and 18th-ranked Neosho as representation from NJCAA Region VI.
A deep men's poll sees two KJCCC schools inside the top-five in the country including top-ranked Colby Community College who is joined by fourth-ranked Northwest Kansas Tech as the top-two teams from the KJCCC in the poll. The Jayhawk Conference also has ninth-ranked Butler ahead of the T-Birds who are in 13th just behind Pima Community College. Other KJCCC schools represented in the men's poll include 17th-ranked Hutchinson, 18th-ranked Garden City, 21st-ranked Neosho, and 24th-ranked Dodge City.
Cloud County is off this upcoming weekend before heading to Columbia, Missouri to compete in the 2022 Gans Creek Classic hosted by the University of Missouri. The meet, which will take place on Friday, September 30th, will begin at 10:30 AM with the men's 8K race while the women's 5K race that will feature the T-Birds will begin at 11:15 AM. Among the confirmed teams for the meet that CCCC will compete against include, NJCAA ranked schools Iowa Western and Cowley along with a mix of NCAA Division II and NAIA programs.