PEORIA, Ill. – Wichita State's Yared Kidane led the Shocker men to a fifth-place team finish out of 29 teams at Friday afternoon at the Bradley Pink Classic.
 
Kidane, a redshirt-junior from Sweden, raced to a fifth-place individual finish over 8K, leading the Shocker men to their fourth-straight top-five Bradley Pink Classic team finish. He ran a personal-best 23:57.95, his first career sub-24-minute performance.
 
Kidane sat in 53^rd through the first 3K and moved up into the top 15 over the next 4K before running the fastest closing 1K of the day in 2:47.95 to pass six people and finish fifth.

Top-5 finish for Yared Kidane! 👏

Personal-best 23:57.95! pic.twitter.com/8TuS87IUbM

— Wichita State T&F/XC (@GoShockersTFXC) October 18, 2024

 
Cesar Ramirez and Adrian Diaz Lopez finished 40^th and 41^st, respectively, Diaz Lopez's first complete race since 2022, and Colin Graham and Riley Vandaveer rounded out the Shocker men's top five, finishing 64^th and 75^th.
 
The Wichita State men knocked off five regionally-ranked teams, including three Midwest programs. The unranked Shockers beat Midwest No. 10 Drake, Midwest No. 14 Bradley and Midwest No. 7 Illinois State, who finished sixth, eighth and 27^th, respectively.
 
Adam Rzentkowski, who is racing cross country unattached due to exhausted eligibility but will race in uniform during the track and field season, finished third.
 
Sarah Bertry recorded the top Shocker finish for the third-straight race, finishing 47^th with a 6K time of 21:21.11. Jenna Muma (94^th), Faith Ekart (115^th), Lea Jerkovic (148^th) and Isabelle Hartnett (158^th) recorded the Shockers' other four scoring finishes as the Wichita State women placed 20^th out of 32 teams.
 
Northwestern claimed the women's team title with 44 points, and North Dakota State won the men's competition with 139 points.
 
The Shockers have one weekend off before hosting the American Athletic Conference Championships on Sat., Nov. 2 at Clapp Cross Country Course.