DENTON, Texas – Wichita State's
Lucy Ndungu and Elkana Kipruto claimed back-to-back 10,000-meter wins to wrap up day one of competition at the American Conference Outdoor Championships Thursday evening at Norma Knobel Hunt Stadium.
Ndungu, a senior from St. Louis, Mo., claimed her first American Conference title, running 34:45.25 to win the 10,000 meters by 26 seconds. She won the Shockers' third-ever American Conference women's 10K title and first since Winny Koskei in 2019.
In the following race, sophomore Elkana Kipruto won his first conference outdoor title for the Shockers, clocking 29:44.15 to win the 10,000 meters by 45 seconds. This marks Kipruto's third American Conference title after winning the 2025 cross country championship and the indoor 5,000 meters earlier this year. Kipruto is the first male Shocker to claim an American Conference 10K title since Wichita State joined the conference in 2017-18. Junior
Titus Kiprotich also scored points for the team in the 10,000, running 31:00.44 to finish seventh.
Six other Shockers scored points on day one. In the men's hammer,
Loudan Hicks and
Beau Kerschen placed fifth and sixth, respectively, with marks of 57.79m/189'7" and 57.74m/189'5". In the men's javelin,
Bronson Krainak placed sixth with a throw of 57.83m/189'8",
Jordan Rider took seventh with a throw of 56.46m/185'3" and
Luke Porter finished eighth with mark of 51.46m/168'10", scoring a total of six points for the team.
Jenna Kuepker also scored a point in the women's javelin, throwing 44.70m/146'8 to place eighth.
Four Shockers advanced to Saturday's finals in the running events as
Vivien Kipkorir and
Jason Parrish ran the fastest times of the day in their respective events to lead the way. Parrish won the first round of the 400-meter hurdles in 50.43, and Kipkorir won the 1500-meter prelim in 4:29.44.
Kelvin Kipyego also advanced to the 1500-meter final, running 3:52.06 to finish third in the prelims.
Josh Parrish broke Wichita State's 24-year-old school record set by Bruce Swan in the 200-meter dash, running 20.63 to advance to the final with the sixth-fastest time of the day.
After day one of the decathlon,
Cole Smither sits in second place with 3,862 points, finishing the day strong with the best high jump clearance of the competition (2.05m/6'8.75") and the second-fastest 400-meter time of the day (50.77). Reigning champion
Rikard Trogen Hedin is in fifth after day one with 3,731 points, running the second-fastest 100-meter dash time of the competition (10.71) and recording the farthest shot put of the day (14.48m/47'6.25").
Myles Larsen and
Luke Porter are eighth and ninth going into day two.
In the heptathlon,
Sadie Millard is in seventh at the end of day one with 3,109 points, running the third-fastest 200-meter time of the day in 24.44.
Kaytlin LaDuke is in ninth,
Kylie Stapleton is in 10
th and
Anna Bundy is in 11
th heading into day two.
In the men's team competition, Rice leads with 31 points, and Wichita State sits in second with 25. The Owls also lead the women's competition with 23 points, and the Shocker women are in sixth with 11 points.
Day two of three of the American Conference Outdoor Championships begins Friday at 10 a.m.
