The RoundHouse | 8/31/2018 9:45:00 AM

Wichita State cross country coach Kirk Hunter talked through the schedule to document how Winny Koskei improved throughout the 2017-18 school year. It served as prelude to a superb finish to the outdoor track and field season.
 
Koskie listened to the upward trend – she won two American Athletic Conference distance races in May – and it made her smile as she sat in Hunter's office earlier this week. It didn't seem to convince her that she did anything special as a redshirt freshman.  
 
"I can't say I'm satisfied," she said. "I would have love to have made it to the NCAA (national), but I didn't, so I'm not satisfied, yet. I'm just beginning the journey."
 
Koskei's improvement is a big part of Hunter's optimism for the cross country season that starts Saturday with the JK Gold Classic at 4 Mile Creek Resort in Augusta. Koskei, a redshirt sophomore from Kenya, won the 5,000 meters (16 minutes, 49.01 seconds) and the 10,000 (35.21.14) in the American outdoor meet. This fall, she runs at the front of the pack with junior Rebekah Topham, who won the 2016 Missouri Valley Conference cross country title before redshirting in 2017-18.
 
Koskei came to Wichita State at the start of the 2017 spring semester and redshirted, needing time to get in better shape and learn Hunter's training routine. International students, Hunter said, face pressures to succeed and adjust to the new surroundings far different from their American teammates. Often, that investment and distance from home leads to a strong work ethic and absolute desire to persevere. With Koskei, it took time for all the new ways to work.
 
"She was running OK, but not at a very high level for what we expected at that point," Hunter said. "She probably was our eighth or ninth girl on the team . . . for that semester. I challenged her when she left for the summer to come back a different person."
 
Philip Cheruiyot, her older brother, and wife Valentine Kibet pushed Koskei that summer in Columbus, Ga. They ran in Britt David and Flat Rock parks and the transformation started.
 
"He kept encouraging me, telling me 'You can do this . . . you should keep working it," Koskei said. "He kept pushing and pushing – 'try to improve and be determined.'"
 
The miles helped. So did talks about race strategy and techniques with two experienced runners. Hunter told Cheruiyot his sister needed more confidence, and the summer training boosted that. 
 
"She is the type of person who will listen," Cheruiyot said. "She is a person who works. If she has a schedule, she follows it."
 
Koskei returned last fall in shape to contribute and start her move to the front of the pack. She finished 18^thin the American cross country meet with a time of 22:21.1 on the hilly 6-kilometer course in Philadelphia. She finished sixth in the American indoor meet in the 5,000 with a time of 17:05.16.
 
"She was extremely fit, but she didn't know how to race," Hunter said. "Through cross country and even the first part of indoor, she didn't have a grasp on what it meant to race. She was a good runner. She didn't understand how to actually race in a competitive environment. Sometimes, that's just about a light bulb coming on."
 
Koskei's switched from potential to impressive production in the American outdoor meet in May in Cincinnati. Earlier in the track season, she started an indoor race aggressively and then coasted and let the front-runners pull away. Hunter didn't like it.
 
He wanted her to compete from start to finish. He showed her training times that indicated she was capable of running better in competition. He showed her times from past Shockers to prove training times translate into race times – with the right attitude.
 
Late in the indoor season, Koskei learned to stick with the front-runners and pass some.
 
"She understood – Ok, this is how we actually race," Hunter said. "We don't just run. We race. The confidence started growing. It was just amazing."
 
With Topham and Koskei, Hunter is confident there are at least two Shockers capable of finishing high in the American and qualifying for the NCAA Championships. Aliphine Tuliamuk, in 2011 and 2012, is the most recent Shocker to run in the NCAA meet.
 
Hunter is also excited about junior Winnie Kibet, who finished third in the 2017 NJCAA 5-kilometer cross country meet with a time of 17:54.8 for Colby Community College. She redshirted last spring at Wichita State. Sophomore Rita Schnaker ran well in fall practices and is one of several runners in that class capable of helping the Shockers improve on last season's sixth-place finish in the American meet.
 
"The women's team is a really exciting group right now," Hunter said. "We were anticipating having three strong front-runners. We could have four."
 
While the women appear strong at the top, the men's team will rely on numbers. 
 
"The men don't really have front-runners, but they have depth," Hunter said. "I have 11 or, probably, 12 men that could make my top nine. They're all very good runners. We have bunch of guys who could fight for an all-conference spot, which would make us a very good team."
 
Junior Zack Penrod finished 26^that the American meet last fall with a time of 26:27.1 in the 8-kilometer race, tops among Shocker returners. In the spring, he won the American's indoor mile and finished second in the outdoor 1,500. Senior Pedro Montoya, who redshirted last fall, finished 12^thin the 2016 MVC meet.
 
Sophomore Ben Flowers finished 36^thin last fall's American meet (26:39.5) and placed fifth in the 5,000 at the USATF Junior Championships with a time of 15:01.69 in June. 
 
"Like Winny Koskei at the end of the year, he took a step," Hunter said. "As a freshman, he had a sensational year. I think he's really going to come in and do some great things."
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.