AUGUSTA, Kan. -- Wichita State's Yazmine Wright gapped the field by 39 seconds to win the women's collegiate individual title Saturday afternoon at the 73^rd Annual JK Gold Classic.
 
Wright navigated the 5,000-meter course at 4 Mile Creek Resort in a personal-best time of 17:34.10.
 
Running mostly by herself, Wright finished just 15 seconds off the course-record time set by Winny Koskei in last January's COVID-delayed JK Gold Classic.
 
"It's terrific," head coach Kirk Hunter said. "Anybody who can do what Winny Koskei can do is a girl to watch out for on the national scale. It's really special what she did here and I'm really happy with the way the she's performing."
 
Wright's victory extends a seven-year run of individual titles for the Shocker women at JK Gold. She joins four-time champ Rebekah Topham and Koskei, a two-time winner.
 
"It felt good," Wright said. "Everyone was just excited to have a normal season again and race again.
 
On the men's side, Clayton Duchatschek posted a 12-second PR of his own (18:26.63) to stake a sixth-place finish in the men's 6,000-meter race.
 
The Shocker women placed four runners in the top eight but lost a tiebreaker to Colorado Christian for the team title. Both sides scored 33 points but the Cougars' sixth runner placed two spots higher.
 
In addition to Wright, Danielle Rinn (18:53.05) took fifth, Lubna Suied (19:03.67) was sixth and Abeba Sullivan (19:09.28) landed in eighth place.
 
Colorado Christian also won the men's title with 21 points, edging out the host Shockers by just 15.
 
Duchatschek was joined in the top 10 by teammates Adam Moore (eighth, 18:34.38), Bryce Merriman (ninth, 18:38.38) and Jackson Caldwell (10th, 18:40.96). Another Shocker, Erik Enriquez, ran unattached but placed seventh with a time of 18:31.63.
 
"It's great to have a home meet because we get the opportunity to run some unattached kids," Hunter said. "We found out we're going to put some of them in uniform because they ran so well. It was great to start off here because they know the course and they know the atmosphere."
 
The start of the meet was delayed by five hours due to substantial rainfall. More than 2.7 inches fell on 4 Mile Creek Resort in the 24 hours leading up to the first race, which began just after 1 p.m. Runners instead battled afternoon heat and humidity.
 
"We figured if it rained hard enough, it would just roll off the hills, and that's what it did," Hunter said. "This course holds water well. It's solid. It's good. It was a great place for everybody to race today."
 
The Shockers take next weekend off then return to action Saturday, Sep. 18 in Lincoln, Neb. at the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational.