COLUMBIA, Mo./SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Lucy Ndungu leads the Wichita State women to another third-place team finish, upsetting two Midwest region teams and running past both in-state rivals Friday morning at the Gans Creek Classic, and the men finished 15^th at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational.
 
The women scored 135 points to place third out of 23 teams, with Ndungu snagging her third-consecutive top-three finish behind another personal-best performance. The junior transfer from Cloud County CC ran 20:41.0 in the 6K, 2 minutes and 23 seconds faster than her previous 6K best, to beat both Nebraska runners who finished ahead of her in the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational 5K two weeks ago. Texas Tech's Juliet Cherubet won the race in 20:16.4 with teammate Anastacia Chepkorir finishing second (20:39.0).
 
"Lucy was right up in the mix right where she was supposed to be, right up in the front, and she took a shot and went for it," Hunter said. "She had a personal record through 5,000 meters and was able to hold on."
 
Ndungu's 5K split was 17:17.2, two seconds faster than her final 5K time from her last race and still ran the final kilometer faster than each of the four middle kilometers of the race.
 
The Shockers, currently ranked 12^th in the USTFCCCA Midwest region rankings, knocked off Midwest No. 6 Bradley (15^th; 362 points) and Midwest No. 10 Kansas State (4^th; 152 points), while also defeating Kansas (6^th; 184 points), Omaha (16^th; 377 points) and Creighton (17^th; 414 points) for the second-straight race. Nebraska won the team title with 85 points, and host, Missouri, placed second with 125 points.
 
Wichita State's other scoring runners were Miranda Dick (16^th; 21:33.4; PB), Sarah Bertry (33^rd; 22:00.6), Lubna Aldulaimi (40^th; 22:06.3) and Jenna Muma (47^th; 22:16.7).
 
"The thing I was most proud about for the girls was that when they were behind because they didn't get out the way they could have through the first K, they didn't throw in the towel," Hunter said. "They kept running, competing and moving up. All the girls were moving up and passing people through every single K split. That is a competitive spirit that we may not have had last year, and these girls are definitely showing that they're the real deal this year."
 
Bertry made her return to the course after finishing third at the JK Gold Classic and sitting out the Nebraska race but was told to hold back a little and run this race as a workout.
 
"Sarah visibly was holding back because we told her to not push it," Hunter said. "She could do it as a workout, and that's it, so she did what she was told, trying to hold back and just run the run, but even doing that, she was a significant part of our team today. Sarah is going to be right up there and really run fast once we let her go."

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In an incredibly stacked field at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, the Shocker men placed 15^th out of 18 with 329 points. They ran well as a team but didn't have a low-point scorer to bump them up the team standings.
 
"I have to give the guys some credit that they did move up based on where they were, and one of the reasons that we really got beat is we didn't have a guy that was up there as a low-point person," Hunter said. "KU's guy won, but that was one guy, and if you look at where our guys fell, as a team we probably did better."
 
The Shockers' 2-3-4-5 runners all finished before Kansas's 2-3-4-5 runners, but it wasn't enough to pull ahead, as Jayhawk Chandler Gibbens won the 5-mile race in 23:08.4 to put them in 14^th.
 
Jackson Caldwell led Wichita State with a 48^th-place finish, running 24:25.5, followed by Zander Cobb (66^th; 24:35.6), Trey Rios (68^th; 24:37.3), Adam Rzentkowski (69^th; 24:37.5) and Erik Enriquez (80^th; 24:47.4).
 
"This is a meet that can make or break you in some ways, and it gives us a huge indicator of where we are at within our own team and within the region and conference, so my message to them was that we had a good day, but you definitely could not say we had a great day," Hunter said.
 
The host team, No. 9 Notre Dame, won the meet with 87 points, followed by Florida State (RV) with 95 points and No. 27 Alabama with 114 points.
 
"Now it really comes down to how we deal with this because I don't think the guys are real excited about their performances," Hunter said. "We learned a lot, and now we get everybody together and just keep getting better as the year goes on."
 
The Shockers return to the course Friday, Oct. 13 for the Bradley Pink Classic in Peoria, Ill.

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GANS CREEK CLASSIC RESULTS
WOMEN

3	Lucy Ndungu	20:41.0
16	Miranda Dick	21:33.4
33	Sarah Bertry	22:00.6
40	Lubna Aldulaimi	22:06.3
47	Jenna Muma	22:16.7
59	Isabelle Hartnett	22:32.3
81	Peyton Pogge	22:45.9
88	Lea Jerkovic	22:58.9
200	Farrah Miller	25:25.5
--	Audrey Parson	DNF

MEN

91	Landen, O'Neill*	25:54.2
98	Colin Graham*	25:57.9
105	Ian Schram*	26:05.3
157	Riley Vandaveer	26:52.2
169	Bennett Meoli*	27:03.6

JOE PIANE NOTRE DAME INVITATIONAL RESULTS
MEN

48	Jackson Caldwell	24:25.5
66	Zander Cobb	24:35.6
68	Trey Rios	24:37.3
69	Adam Rzentkowski	24:37.5
80	Erik Enriquez	24:47.4
97	Cesar Ramirez	25:02.3
121	Aidan Reyna	25:27.2
131	Jacob Meyers	25:46.5
--	Iestyn Williams	DNF

*competed unattached