LINCOLN, Neb. – For the second-straight meet, Elkana Kipruto claimed the individual title and led his team to victory, while
Lucy Ndungu made her return to racing with a runner-up finish Saturday at the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational at Mahoney Park Golf Course.
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Kipruto, a sophomore transfer and Kapsabet, Kenya native, ran 23:55.7 in the 8K, finishing 18 seconds ahead of Missouri's Elijah Limo to claim his second-straight victory.
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"We definitely expected that from him," head coach
Kirk Hunter said "He's the real deal, to say the least. He basically just floated away from everybody, and it was a very easy win for him."
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For the first time since 2023, the Shockers saw
Lucy Ndungu race in a cross country uniform. The 2023 American Conference cross country runner up and 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships qualifier made her return to racing after recovering from injury and redshirting during the 2024-25 cross country and track and field seasons. She recorded a runner-up finish in her season debut, running 17:42.4 in the 5K to lead the Shocker women to a red division (Division I) second-place team finish.
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"It's awesome to see her running again, and to be able to open up that strong after that amount of time off is really spectacular," Hunter said. "She didn't win the race, but the effort she put in and beating some of the girls she beat was really high level, especially considering she's been out so long."
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Senior
Adrian Diaz Lopez came in third for the men, his second-consecutive top-three finish, with a time of 24:15.9. Three more Shockers finished in the top 15 of the red division (Division I) as sophomore transfer
Kelvin Kipyego took seventh in 24:36.8, senior
Zander Cobb finished 10
th in 24:49.1, and senior
Cesar Ramirez placed 12
th in 24:59.6, giving the Shockers the team win with 33 points. Missouri took second with 41 points, and Air Force came in third with 48 points.
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"Adrian really ran everybody down; he was back a little bit," Hunter said. "Kelvin was more aggressive. I think the two of them could work together to make a more perfect runner, but together, they did really well."
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"The next group was just a pack," Hunter said. "We're not really struggling to find a fifth person; we have eight or nine guys that could be our fifth person, and that's a big deal for us in terms of the future."
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Freshman
Greyson Ellensohn made his official collegiate debut, racing in a Wichita State uniform for the first time. The St. Charles, Ill. native was the sixth Shocker to cross the line, running 25:11.81 to finish 15
th in the red division.
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"That was spectacular," Hunter said. "This is a really good team, and for him to be one of the top guys as a true freshman, that was very good. The course is slow because it's been raining for a few days; it's soft, and it's muddy in some spots, so to run that fast of a time as a true freshman was really solid."
 For the second-straight meet, Elkana Kipruto claimed the individual title and led his team to victory, while
Lucy Ndungu made her return to racing with a runner-up finish Saturday at the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational at Mahoney Park Golf Course.
For the women, senior
Sarah Bertry was the second Shocker to finish, taking sixth with a 5K time of 18:06.1. Sophomore
Faith Ekart and junior transfer
Francesca Alvarado also finished in the top 15, placing ninth (18:25.4) and 13
th (18:31.2), respectively. Junior transfer
Jordyn Picolet rounded out the scoring for the women with a 24
th-place finish, running 18:57.6 to help the Wichita State women take second as a team with 54 points, just 11 points behind Missouri.
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A small group of Shockers will be back in action on Saturday, Oct. 4 at the Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Ark., while the remainder of the team won't race again until Saturday, Oct. 18 at the Pre-National Invitational in Columbia, Mo.
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