CONCORDIA - After turning the corner in the past three seasons to find themselves not only atop the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference but also Region VI Champions, the Cloud County Community College cross country teams come into the 2021 season with high hopes and expectations.
Of course, it only seems fitting that a women's team who finished as 2020 NJCAA National Runner up by a single point and a men's team coming off their third-straight top-10 finish at the NJCAA National Championships would have their sights set on keeping the momentum rolling into this season.
With a strong nucleus of returners on both the women's and men's side, the T-Birds showed last year amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic that staying focused on the task at hand and only worrying about what you can control allows for the rest to fall into place. Now, CCCC will have a chance to put their words into action as the season gets underway beginning tonight with the Terry Masterson Twilight Classic in Hutchinson, Kansas.
For the Cloud County women, winning four of the six meets they competed in last year to go along with a pair of runner-up finishes was a string of success that had not been in the history of the program. Winning the first NJCAA Region VI Division I and KJCCC West Division title in school history, the bar has now been set for what is achievable by a group donning the T-Bird on their uniform while running in black and gold uniforms.
Bringing back three runners who competed on the 2020 NJCAA Division I National Runner-Up team, Cloud County will look to sophomore Ludjenie Mondesir and second-year freshmen Pamela Milano and Emma Holthaus as all three finished in the top-50 individually last year at the Championship meet in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Mix in a group of freshmen with high hopes including Lucy Ndungu (Bridgeton, Missouri) and Melody Ochana (Lenexa, Kansas) as part of a group of six newcomers and ninth-year head coach Drew Mahin believes this group could be even closer as a team than last year's National Runner-Up team.
"Instead of re-creating the magic that was last year, our focus this year is to find and embrace the new challenges that will be presented to this group of athletes" said Mahin. "We have a really good team in terms of work ethic and expectations to be competitive at the collegiate level." "Right now they're doing everything right, but we need to see how these girls respond when they get thrown into the fire and are competing against upwards of 20 teams at a meet." "For a lot of these girls, this will be their first full junior college experience due to things outside of our control like COVID."
Looking towards the T-Bird men, the back-to-back KJCCC West Division and NJCAA Region VI Champions will once again come in as likely favorites within the region while expecting to compete for another top-10 finish at the NJCAA Championships. Returning second-team NJCAA All-American Awet Beraki is one of four returners with National Championship meet experience with four newcomers (Jose Julian Avila, Edwin Kipainoi, Raziel Patton, Elmer Sotelo) looking to break into the group as scoring members towards the team score at meets.
"We have a really strong group of top-level returners as Awet, Michael Iyali, and Edwin will all look to be neck and neck with each other at meets not to mention Rylan Cheney and Linus Limo who were able to gain valuable experience at the National Meet last year" remarked Mahin in regards to this year's men's squad. "Right now, our focus is on the development of our runners and developing a team culture that has helped us get over the hump in the past."
In addition to the Terry Masterson Twilight Classic, Cloud County is also scheduled to compete in the Greeno/Dierksen Invitational in Lincoln, Nebraska on September 18th and the following week at the Emporia State Invitational. The month of October will kick off with the Chili Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas followed by the Fort Hays State Tiger Open to finish off the regular season. This year's NJCAA Region VI Championships will take place in Colby, Kansas hosted by Colby Community College on Saturday, October 30th while the 2021 NJCAA Division I National Championship meet is slated for Saturday, November 13th in Richmond, Virginia.
"Keeping expectations extremely simple will be one of the keys to our success this year" said Mahin. "Everything within our team goals is attainable, but we need to have the team atmosphere to help lift individuals which in turn leads to the team being lifted up beyond where we already are."