The RoundHouse | 11/1/2024 7:43:00 PM
By Paul Suellentrop
Sarah Bertry hit the final stretch of the 6-kllometer course, and she could hear the voices. She needed the boost, and she got it from her Wichita State teammates, coaches and fans lining the final meters of the Clapp Cross Country Course.
"It really helped, especially because it was a really tough race," she said. "I hear everything. The energy that was here, everybody that was cheering for us, that was pretty cool."
Bertry, a senior from Annecy, France, provided the individual highlight for Wichita State in the American Athletic Conference Championship on Friday. She finished 14
th to earn all-conference honors for a second time by running a 6-kilometer time of 21 minutes, 29.8 seconds.
The Shocker women finished sixth with 166 points in the 13-team conference. Tulsa won its seventh AAC title by placing four runners in the top 16. Tulane runners placed first and second and the Green Wave finished second with 66 points, three more than Tulsa.
In the men's 8-kilometer race, Tulane won the head-to-head tiebreaker with Tulsa after both finished with 33 points. The Green Wave snapped Tulsa's streak of 10 AAC titles. The Shockers finished fourth with
Yared Kidane leading the team at 21
st with a time of 25:00.5.
"They had a lot of adversity you could see happening during both races," WSU distance coach
Kirk Hunter said. "I thought the men and women competed extremely tough. They had a good day."
Bertry, who finished 13
th in the AAC in 2022 and 27
th last fall, started Friday's race running with the lead pack. They outdistanced her around 2 kilometers. She passed others to move into the top 15 and earn all-conference honors over the final kilometer.
"She ran a really good race," Hunter said. "She kicked down a couple girls at the end to get into that top 15."
Paul Suellentrop writes about Wichita State athletics for university Strategic Communications. Story suggestion? Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.
