HUTCHINSON – Led by an individual tile from sophomore Habtamu Geta, the Cloud County Community College men's cross country team would have two runners finish in the top three as part of a fourth-place team finish at the 2020 Terry Masterson Twilight Classic in Hutchinson, Kansas on Friday.
Overall, Cloud County finished with a total of 103 points to finish in fourth among the eight teams that posted team scores. Allen Community College would win the team race with 49 total points, followed by Cowley College (57 points) and Hutchinson (61 points) rounding out the top three. Coming in behind the T-Birds would be Highland (118 points), Dodge City (125 points), MCC-Longview (175 points), and Coffeyville (233 points) while Garden City and Neosho would not post team scores.
"Habtamu was solid all race and made a smart move during the third mile as he has grown more confident during the last year and know what it takes to be a top NJCAA runner" said head coach Drew Mahin in a post-race interview. "It's going to be an exciting year for him and should be our top contender for our region meet."
"Michael Iyali worked through the crowd after a slower start, but closed out the race well to finish third so getting him and Geta to work together will be the goal at our next meet," he continued. "Our other three runners were competing in their first cross country meet as T-Birds and fought through some minor mistakes, but were able to get rid of the butterflies and complete the whole race."
Winning the individual title by over 12 seconds, Geta would post a time of 20:13.50 to earn his first collegiate race win while Michael Iyali would burst onto the scene with a third-place finish in a time of 21:02.10 in his college debut. Three other CCCC runners would also post times in their first meet in a T-Bird uniform, with Linus Limo (22:52.0), Rylan Cheney (23:08.90), and Amos Ryder (26:10.80) also contributing to the team score for Cloud County.
What's next?
A second straight week of competition will see Cloud County head to El Dorado, to take part in the 2020 Ollie Isom Invitational hosted by Butler Community College on Friday. With a start time of 4:30 p.m., the T-Birds will be taking part in their first 8K race of the year at the site of this year's 2020 NJCAA Region VI Championships which will take place later in the year.