AMES, Iowa – Nicholas Kipchirchir led the Wichita State men to their best regional team finish in school history, and three Shockers were named All-Region Friday at the NCAA Midwest Regional at the Iowa State Cross Country Course.
 
"We shocked a lot of people out there today," head coach Kirk Hunter said. "Coaches were confused, but we weren't. We knew we were that good, but we had to put it together, so I was proud that they were able to finally do it at the right moment."
 
The Shocker men bounced back from a disappointing performance at the American Conference Championship to finish third as a team with 132 points behind No. 3-ranked Oklahoma State (57 points) and No. 10 Iowa State (61 points). The top two teams are auto qualifiers to the NCAA Championships, but the Shockers defeated three nationally-ranked programs, No. 22 Minnesota, No. 26 Missouri and No. 30 Tulsa to put themselves in a good position to potentially earn an at-large team bid going into Saturday's 4 p.m. selection show.
 
Kipchirchir, a senior from Eldoret, Kenya, punched his ticket to the NCAA Championships, recording a fourth-place finish with a school record-breaking performance. Kipchirchir ran 28:53.4 to earn All-Region recognition and guarantee his spot at the national meet.
 
Junior Elkana Kipruto also finished in the top 25 to be named All-Region, taking 10^th with a time of 28:57.7. The Kapsabet, Kenya native will await the NCAA Selection Show to determine if he will race at the NCAA Championships for a second-straight year.
 
"Nicholas just kept moving and following and responding to everything, and so did Elly," Hunter said. "When you have two guys at that level up there, you hope your other ones can come back and do well."
 
Junior Dennis Rono was the third Shocker to cross the line, finishing just outside of the top 25 in 28^th and running 29:31.6.
 
"Dennis did his normal thing staying up in front," Hunter said. "That's how he likes to run, and I love that about him. Some of those guys might get away from him a bit, but he doesn't get very far from them."
 
Sophomore Austin Carrera and junior Kelvin Kipyego rounded out the scoring for the Shockers, taking 44^th (29:57.6) and 49^th (30:01.8), respectively, out of 196 runners, and sophomore Greyson Ellensohn (101^st; 30:54.3) and senior Bennett Meoli (145^th; 31:39.1) finished as the six and seven for Wichita State.
 
"They were so incredibly disappointed [after the conference championship], and we had a long talk about rebounding," Hunter said. "To be able to come back and do what they did today is almost mindboggling. The credit is there for all seven runners, and it was one of the better team performances we've had all year."
 
Sophomore Vivien Kipkorir was the third All-Region performer of the day for the Shockers, finishing 14^th in the women's race with a personal-best 6K time of 19:47.7, improving her No. 2 time in school history by 14 seconds.
 
"Vivien was very, very competitive today," Hunter said. "That's the best I've ever seen her, and I've seen her do some really good things. This is a girl who would probably tell you that she prefers middle distance over a 6K race, but it didn't look like it today. That was a tremendous race for her, and I'm very proud of her."
 
Kipkorir sits outside the auto-qualifying individual placement but still has an opportunity to be named an at-large individual qualifier and will have to watch the selection show to find out if she claimed a spot at the NCAA Championships.
 
"She's running in one of the toughest regionals in the country, and she gets 14^th and puts herself in consideration to be a national qualifier, which is unbelievably good," Hunter said. "She's already sitting in that No. 2 spot in school history behind Aliphine Tuliamuk, the greatest ever, and she's sitting there telling me today that that record will fall next year, so good for her."
 
Mercy Jepkoech finished 82^nd with a time of 20:58.3, Francesca Alvarado took 155^th with a time of 21:56.1, Irene Andujar Martinez placed 161^st with a time of 22:01.3 and Kalyn Willingham finished 192^nd with a time of 22:31.7. Isabelle Hartnett (197^th; 22:47.3) and Jordyn Picolet (228^th; 23:59.5) were the sixth and seventh Shockers to finish. The Wichita State women placed 24^th out of 35 teams in the region, while Iowa State and Oklahoma State finished first and second to claim the auto-qualifying spots to nationals.
 
The NCAA Division I Cross Country Selection Show airs Saturday, Nov. 14 at 4 p.m. on NCAA.com when the 14 at-large teams as well as all individual qualifiers will be unveiled.
 
An at-large bid to the NCAA Championships for the Shocker men would grant them their first team trip to the national meet since 1975.