Meet Notes

The Basics
            The Shockers send a small group of runners to the FHSU Tiger Open after the entire team was off last week.
            The group consists of young runners looking to gain experience at an in-state meet.
            Men's probable entries: Josh Cable, Cade Heikes, Josh Klein, Jason Landon, Asher Moen, Mel Obadiah and Keegan Staats.
            Women's probable entries: Sharon Kiprop, McKenna Paintin, Emma Stamm and Erin Topham.
 
Follow the Meet
            Fans can follow along on Twitter at @GoShockersTFXC for updates. A recap will be posted to GoShockers.com as well as full PDF results.
 
Meet Schedule
            The FHSU Tiger Open kicks off at 10:25 a.m. with the women's 5K and continues at 11 a.m. with the men's 8K.
 
Last Time Out
            The Shockers split into two groups a couple of weeks ago.
            One group went to Emporia for the Emporia State Invitational and the other group went to the Pacific Northwest for the Bill Dellinger Invitational in Eugene, Oregon.
            In Emporia, Hope Saunders won the individual title. She finished the race with a time of 19:45.76. She was the only woman to run the 5K in under 20 minutes.
            The men's team had six in the top 46. Asher Moen led the way with a 26th-place finish. As a team, the Shocker men finished in fifth.
            In Oregon, the Shockers saw some impressive performances, highlighted by Winny Koskei's 13th-place finish. She finished toward the front of a race packed with ranked teams and All-Americans. Koskei clocked in the first 6K of the year with a time of 20:14.5.
            Rebekah Topham finished 39th after battling some sickness. Yazmine Wright also finished in the top 60. The Shocker women finished 10th overall.
            On the men's side, Ben Flowers led the way for Wichita State. He finished 37th, but moved up a total of 40 spots throughout the race. He finished the first 8K of the season in 24:19.2.
            Two pairs of Shockers finished close together behind Flowers. Zack Penrod and Ethan Kossover finished back-to-back in 78th and 79th, and Jed Helker and Adam Moore finished two spots away from each other in 89th and 91st.
            The Shocker men finished in 11th place as a team in a field packed with ranked squads.
            All in all, 17 teams who were either ranked or received votes in the USTFCCCA National Rankings were in the field at Oregon.
 
Coach Hunter on the Meet
On his goals and expectations for the meet in Hays
"Right now, it looks like it'll be good weather. Those kids in Emporia had some bad weather. Now they'll get to show what they can do. I'm excited for them to run in good conditions. It'll be in the 48-50 degree range. They get a chance to gain some confidence. For me, that's a big part of it. Giving them experience is so important. If they don't get a chance to run, they don't get a chance to develop, and that's something we work on as a coaching staff."
 
On the longer period of times between meets
"It's a huge advantage to have time to train. We train hard. Distance runners never really get a break. We put some time in to put in strong workouts and sessions. That helps us get ready for the end of the season. Having that time is better than racing all the time and having to rest to race the best we can. It helps us get some good training patterns. Our goal is to get on the starting line at conference healthy."
 
Koskei Keeps Kicking
            Winny Koskei is again leading the way for the Shocker women this season.
            The All-American has had two impressive races at the JK Gold Classic and the Bill Dellinger Invitational.
            Koskei came out of JK Gold as the individual champion, dethroning fellow All-American Rebekah Topham. She won the race with a time of 13:48.5. Her performance led the Shocker women to a team victory as well.
            In Oregon, Koskei showed she is still a force to be reckoned with on the national stage. She finished the first 6K of the season in 20:14.5 to finish the race in 13th place. The Bill Dellinger Invitational was packed with ranked teams and All-American contenders.
            Koskei has proven she is back and ready to claim another All-America honor.
 
In Full Bloom
            Ben Flowers has emerged as the leader for the Wichita State men's cross country squad in 2019.
            Flowers started his year with an individual title at the JK Gold Classic. He won the race in 18:38.2. Flowers' performance was the high point of a great day for the Shocker men. Wichita State won the team title and put six in the top eight to claim the team title.
            Flowers proved his performance wasn't a fluke when he ran at the Bill Dellinger Invitational. Flowers finished in 37th in a field full of ranked teams. He moved up a total of 40 spots throughout the race, and clocked in at 24:19.2 in his first 8K of 2019.
 
Shockers in the Rankings
            The USTFCCCA Regional Rankings came out Monday, and the Shockers stayed put.
            The Shocker men came in at No. 10 in the Midwest Region.
            The Shocker women were slotted at No. 8 and have been ranked for 12 consecutive weeks, including six straight in the top 10.