WICHITA – For the second-consecutive year, the Wichita State cross country teams swept the team titles at the JK Gold Classic with the women scoring a perfect 15 points and the men scoring 16 points Saturday at Clapp Cross Country Course.
 
Lucy Ndungu claimed her first win as a Shocker in her Wichita State debut, running a huge personal best of 17:42.5 in the 5K to beat the rest of the field by over 15 seconds.
 
"It was incredible," Ndungu said. "I know I've been working toward this, and I feel like I had more still in me, but it felt really amazing."
 
The junior transfer from Cloud County CC smashed her previous personal best by almost 30 seconds after spending the summer increasing her training in Colorado.
 
"She's been looking really easy in practice, and I think the biggest thing was the summer training she did," Hunter said. "She really upped her game a lot this summer and increased her mileage base, and it was pretty impressive. It really paid off today because she looked really good."
 
The Shocker women tallied their sixth-consecutive team win at the JK Gold Classic, and the men repeated as team champions after claiming the title a year ago.
 
Iestyn Williams led the men with a second-place finish in his first cross country race since he was 16 years old, crossing the line in 18:16.6.
 
"Iestyn has looked really strong in practice," Hunter said. "We did a long 10-mile escalation run a couple weeks ago at camp, and he was right there with the top guys, so the fact that he can run 10 miles like that and finish strong, I kind of thought he would do well today."
 
The senior from Llanddeusant, Wales came to Wichita State with his best event being the 800 meters but made a statement with his 6K performance that he will be one to watch on the cross country course, as well.
 
"He's obviously going to be one of our top guys because he's doing really well and he looks great," Hunter said.
 
As with most season openers, Hunter raced a majority of the newcomers unattached to protect their seasons before making a decision whether to redshirt or race in uniform for the remainder of the season. Junior transfer from Central Michigan, Adam Rzentkowski, may not have been in uniform, but he did not go unnoticed in his first race with the Wichita State program, winning the 6K in 18:09.3. For the women, freshman Isabelle Hartnett also raced unattached but finished in the Shockers' top five, placing sixth with a time of 18:43.8.
 
Jackson Caldwell (3^rd), Trey Rios (4^th), Zander Cobb (5^th) and Cesar Ramirez (8^th) rounded out the scoring for the men, and Sarah Bertry (3^rd), Lubna Aldulaimi (4^th), Miranda Dick (5^th) and Jenna Muma (7^th) completed the top five for the women.
 
"We tried to run together as a group and stay together for more than half the race, and then I let them go," Hunter said. "What impressed me the most with the guys is when I let them go, they didn't separate that much. We did have separation on the girls' side, so we've got to close down our top seven, but the top four had a spectacular race. We'll be a team that people will pay attention to this year."

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Men's Results

1	Adam Rzentkowski*	18:09.3
2	Iestyn Williams	18:16.6
3	Jackson Caldwell	18:20.0
4	Trey Rios	18:21.0
5	Zander Cobb	18:22.8
7	Erik Enriquez*	18:36.5
8	Cesar Ramirez	18:41.4
10	Jacob Meyers	18:46.1
11	Colin Graham*	18:50.1
13	Aidan Reyna	18:59.2
17	Landon O'Neill*	19:23.6
19	Bennett Meoli*	19:26.6
42	Riley Vandaveer	20:30.1
--	Ian Schram	DNF

Women's Results

1	Lucy Ndungu	17:42.5
3	Sarah Bertry	18:02.2
4	Lubna Aldulaimi	18:04.4
5	Miranda Dick	18:05.5
6	Isabelle Hartnett*	18:43.8
7	Jenna Muma	18:50.5
8	Peyton Pogge	19:04.1
11	Lea Jerkovic	19:43.2
19	Farrah Miller*	20:38.2
28	Audrey Parson	21:21.2
--	Brianna Utecht	DNF
--	Aracely Martinez	DNF
--	Emily Whorton	DNF
--	Kenisa Meyer	DNF
--	Lexi Gagnon	DNF
--	Tess Roman	DNF
--	Destiny Masters	DNF
--	Abby Klipstein	DNF
--	Natalie Hill	DNF
--	Sadie Millard	DNF

*competed unattached