WICHITA – Wichita State's Yared Kidane led the Shocker men to their third-consecutive JK Gold Classic team title, defeating American Athletic Conference foe North Texas by 27 points.
 
The redshirt-junior from Eskilstuna, Sweden finished third behind Colby CC's Sibonelo Khumalo and unattached Shocker Adam Rzentkowski, who has exhausted his cross country eligibility but remains with the team to compete in uniform during the track and field season.
 
Kidane improved on his previous 6K personal best by 47 seconds, running 18:13.28 in his Shocker debut.
 
"That was a really good race considering he hasn't been training very long," head coach Kirk Hunter said.
 
Kidane had a long summer of racing for his country, most notably finishing sixth in the 800 meters at the Swedish Championships.
 
"He's not fit yet, and for him to open up that way with the best opener of his life, that guy's going to be really good," Hunter said. "He's a talent."
 
The Wichita State men logged three more top-15 finishes with redshirt-junior Cesar Ramirez taking 11^th (18:29.29), redshirt-freshman Ian Schram placing 12^th (19:29.70) and redshirt-freshman Colin Graham finishing 15^th (18:35.29).  Redshirt-freshman Landen O'Neill rounded out the scoring, taking 16^th with a time of 18:36.43.
 
The Shocker women finished third without two of their top runners, scoring 72 points, just two points behind North Texas as Tulsa claimed the team title with a perfect 15 points.
 
"We're very young, but I think we battled well," Hunter said. "You hate to see a team go perfect score on you, but Tulsa is a heck of a team."
 
Senior Sarah Bertry led the Shockers with a sixth-place finish, running 17:37.72, a 25-second personal best.
 
"Sarah ran well," Hunter said. "She's fit. She ran a good race, did a really good job, and made herself one of the girls to watch in the conference this year."
 
Although Tulsa's Chloe Hershenow claimed the new meet record with a time of 17:16.49, Berty's time also broke the former meet record set by Lucy Ndungu a year ago.
 
Senior Jenna Muma also recorded a top-15 finish, placing 11^th with a time of 18:06.79.
Three underclassmen rounded out the scoring for the Shockers with freshman Faith Ekart finishing just outside the top 15, taking 16^th with a time of 18:20.86, sophomore Isabelle Hartnett finishing 18^th (18:23.03) and freshman Emily See placing 21^st (18:43.88).
 
"Faith is doing really well, Emily made a step forward, and Kalyn [Willingham] is going to be there by the end of the year," Hunter said. "That freshman group is really good, and I'm really proud of them. They're going to be a big part of our year."
 
Wichita State will have three weeks of training before returning to competition for the Gans Creek Classic on Friday, Sept. 27 in Columbia, Mo.

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MEN'S RESULTS - 1st of 13 / 46 points

3	Yared Kidane	18:05.0
11	Cesar Ramirez	18:13.3
12	Ian Schram	18:29.3
14	Jacob Meyers*	18:29.7
15	Colin Graham	18:35.3
16	Landen O'Neill	18:36.5
19	Jonah Allison	18:40.0
20	Erik Enriquez	18:43.5
23	Aidan Reyna	18:48.3
30	Riley Vandaveer	19:01.0
34	Bennett Meoli	19:14.0
61	Ian Hunter	19:59.7

*competed unattached

WOMEN'S RESULTS - 3rd of 10 / 72 points

6	Sarah Bertry	17:37.8
11	Jenna Muma	18:06.8
16	Faith Ekart	18:20.9
21	Isabelle Hartnett	18:23.1
24	Emily See	18:43.9
25	Lea Jerkovic	18:47.6
42	Kalyn Willingham	18:53.8
47	Amanda Treptow	19:30.5
51	Farrah Miller	19:46.9
67	Cailey Freeze	20:01.8
--	Audrey Parson	DNF
--	Lexi Gagnon	DNF
--	Natalie Hill	DNF
--	Sadie Millard	DNF
--	Peyton Pogge	DNF
--	Tess Roman	DNF
--	Emily Whorton	DNF