Cloud County Cross Country Runners Return to Action at Woody Greeno/Jay Dirksen Invitational
Wet Course conditions and a field with more than 20 teams represented in both the men's and women's races, the Cloud County Community College cross country teams would compete in the 2022 Woody Greeno/Jay Dirksen Invitational hosted by the University of Nebraska and Nebraska Wesleyan University at Mahoney Golf Course in Lincoln, Nebraska on Saturday, September 17th.
In the men's 8,000 Meter Gold Division, the Cloud County men would finish with a total of 378 points to finish 14th overall in a 21-team field while the T-Bird women would have an eighth-place finish among the 20-team women's field in the 5,000-meter gold division by finishing with 258 total points.
With the men's race kicking off at 10 AM local time, CCCC would be part of a 321-runner field that would tackle the course and be paced by a third-place individual finish by freshman Kidus Misgina in a time of 24:21.6, just 50 seconds off the winning time of 23:31.0 that would be run by Sanele Masondo of Colby Community College. Sophomore Rylan Cheney would be Cloud County's next highest finisher after coming in with a time of 27:16.0 for a 145th-place finish and be followed by a 179th-place finish from Raziel Patton who posted a time of 27:51.4. The T-Bird men would also have Sam Pinkerton (249th, 30:03.5), Cejay Morrison (257th, 30:33.5), Quwayne Reid (273rd, 31:14.7) and Andres Young (276th, 31:26.2) compete in the race in what would be the first 8K competition of the year for Cloud County.
The Cloud County women would be led by sophomore Melody Ochana who would run a time of 19:23.0 in CCCC's first 5,000-meter race to finish in 80th-place while posting the sixth-fastest time among NJCAA runners in the 310-runner field. Just seven seconds off Ochana's pace would be sophomore Lucy Ndungu in her first competition of the season to run a time of 19:30.1 and finish in 88th while Abigail Fisher would also see her first action of the season and post a time of 20:29.9 (144th). Following Fisher for the T-Birds would be Bailey Rock by posting a time of 21:12.5 for a 181st-place finish with Emmy Punches taking 190th in a time of 21:29.1. Other runners who competed for Cloud County on Saturday would include Aina Goir (223rd, 22:15.9), Mary Kua (264th, 23:40.5), Nikola Prochazkova (265th, 23:45.0), Aliya Johnson (278th, 24:22.10), Christina Beard (299th, 27:20.8) and Carryna Light (304th, 29:43.5).
What's Next?
With two meets in the 2022 season complete, the T-Birds will now have an off week before getting back to action with a trip to Columbia, Missouri to compete in the University of Missouri Gans Creek Classic on Friday, September 30th. The meet is expected to be another large meet, with teams from all collegiate levels expected to be represented.