PEORIA, Ill. – Winny Koskei advances to the NCAA Championships after placing third in the NCAA Midwest Regionals 6K race.
 
Winny Koskei finished third at the NCAA Midwest Regional with a personal best time of 20:23.0. The redshirt sophomore started out of the box slow running the first 2,000m in 6:48.4. Koskei picked up the pace moving from 20th to eighth place by the 4,000m mark. Less than 1,000m to go she made her final kick moving into the top-5 finishing the 6,000m course in third.
 
"Koskei ran amazing," said head cross country coach Kirk Hunter "She did everything perfect and ran tough, that's what you must do to advance to the national meet."
 
Koskei becomes the first Shocker to reach the NCAA Championships since 2012 when Aliphine Tuliamuk placed second in the regionals and advanced to a fourth place finish in the national race.
 
The Shocker women placed three in the top-50, including two in the top-25 to finish 10th as a team. Koskei and Rebekah Topham each earned All-Region honors with top-25 finishes, Koskei in third and Topham in 17th (20:59.2).
 
Rounding out the scorers for the Shockers include, Yazmine Wright in 48th (21:33.5), Winnie Kibet in 88th (21:59.8) and Rita Schnacker in 99th (22:04.6).
 
Halle Johnson placed 189th with a time of 23:23.0 and Destini Eskridge finished 207th in 23:50.4.
 
The men's team finished 18th place out of 31 teams. Clayton Duchatschek and Zack Penrod each recorded top-75 finishes in a field of 208 runners. Duchatschek led the group finishing 67th with a time of 32:25.3 and Penrod placed 74th in 32:30.3.
 
Ethan Kossover was the third Shocker to cross the finish line in 113th (33:09.2), followed by Pedro Montoya in 118th (33:16.2) and Josh Klein in 143rd (33:44.6).
 
Ben Flowers and Cory Landon each finished the 10K course, Flowers in 160th (34:19.3) and Landon in 175th (34:41.8).
 
Iowa State swept the men's and women's team titles and individual titles, Edwin Kurgat won the men's 10K in 30:41.6 and Cailie Logue won the women's 6K with a time of 20:13.5.
 
The Oklahoma State women's team and Bradley men's team joined Iowa State in earning automatic team bids to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 17 in Madison Wisconsin.