COLUMBIA, Mo. – Wichita State's Elkana Kipruto is set to compete in his first NCAA Cross Country Championships Saturday morning at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course.
 
The men will race a 10K at 10:10 a.m., and fans can watch the race on ESPNU.
 
Kipruto will race in a field of 261 men, aiming for a top-40 finish to earn All-American status. The sophomore from Kapsabet, Kenya ranks 14^th in the latest FloTrack rankings and 28^th in the USTFCCCA Cross Country Ratings Index XCRI. He is coming off an American Conference Championship win and a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional.
 
Kipruto is the first Shocker man since Mornay Annandale in 1992 to qualify to the NCAA Cross Country Championships, marking the 42^nd appearance by a Wichita State man at the national meet. The Wichita State men's best finish at the NCAA Championships came in 1974 when Randy Smith finished 10^th to earn All-American recognition. Four Shocker men have been named cross country All-Americans: Alan Walker (1972, 22^nd), Randy Smith (1974, 10^th), George Collier (1982, 27^th), and Mornay Annandale (1990, 17^th and 1992, 19^th).
 
The last time Kipruto raced at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course, he finished second at the Pre-National Invitational behind No. 6-ranked (FloTrack) Kelvin Cheruiyot of Florida.

Kipruto led the Shocker men in all five of his races this season, winning the JK Gold Classic and Greeno/Dirksen Invitational, finishing second at the Pre-National Invitational, claiming the American Conference title, and finishing seventh at the NCAA Midwest Regional to qualify to the NCAA Championships.