FULL RESULTS

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Yazmine Wright won her second individual cross country title of the season Friday at the Gans Creek Invitational, while the Shocker men had a very strong finish in the 8k race, moving up from third to second in the final kilometer.
 
Wright came out in the first 6k race of the season and ran a personal-best time of 20:53.90 to earn the individual win.
 
"It felt really good, especially after not being able to finish the race at Nebraska," Wright said. "I think that gave me a lot more motivation to run well this race."
 
Throughout the first 4k, she stayed with the pack in order to conserve. At the 4k mark, she started to go for it, putting separation between her and the rest of the group.
 
"During the race, I was making sure she was being patient because she has the tendency to get too aggressive early," head coach Kirk Hunter said. "I kept telling her to wait because you could tell she wanted to take off after the first kilometer."
 
The race came down to the final kilometer where it was a back-and-forth battle between Wright and Sarah Chapman of Missouri.
 
"It ended up being her and the Missouri girl battling it out over the last 600 meters or so, but she was able to pull away and win it easily," Hunter said.
 
Wright finished seven seconds ahead of Chapman to earn the win and lead the Shocker women to a 7th-place team finish.
 
"I was happy with the improvement I saw from our girls," Hunter said. "I thought there was some really big improvement from McKenna (Paintin) and Abeba (Sullivan). It was the first 6k of the year, and it will be 6k races from here on out, so this was a big race for us."
 
Danielle Rinn and Sullivan were the second and third Shockers to cross the line with times of 22:03.90 (35^th) and 22:17.40 (43^rd). Lubna Suied and Jenna Muma rounded out the scoring spots for Wichita State.
 
On the men's side, the Shockers battled as a team to a second-place finish against a strong field.
 
"The guys did the same thing they did at Nebraska," Hunter said. "At the halfway point, they were in seventh as a team."
 
The other teams were more aggressive at the start, but the Shockers hung back and slowly worked their way through the pack.
 
"At the 4k mark, they were easily starting to move up and pick people off," Hunter said. "I'm extremely happy with how they're performing as a team. Those five guys, especially, pulled it off for us and earned us a second-place trophy."
 
Jed Helker led the way for the Shocker men with his second top-10 finish of the year, running a personal-best 24:12.70 (8^th) in the 8k. Adam Moore (24:24.40 PB) and Clayton Duchtschek (24:26.30 PB) were the next two Shockers to finish, placing 14^th and 16^th respectively. The final two scoring Shockers were Shadrack Chumba and Bryce Merriman with their 25^th and 26^th-place finishes.
 
The Shockers will be back out on the course again Friday, Oct. 15 for the Bradley Pink Classic in Peoria, Ill.