NEW ORLEANS, La. – Heading into their second off weekend of the season, the Cloud County Community College men's and women's cross country teams both remain ranked inside the top-10 of the second edition of the United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association polls released on Wednesday.
This week's edition of the polls features the T-Bird men ranked fifth while the CCCC women are ranked ninth as both teams are coming off last weekend's competition at the Woody Greeno/Jay Dirksen Invitational in Lincoln, Neb. The men's ranking of fifth is second-best in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College conference behind only number two ranked Colby while the women are also the second-highest ranked KJCCC school behind only seventh-ranked Dodge City.
At the Greeno/Dirksen Invitational, the Cloud County men would earn a fifth-place team finish in the Gold Division race as sophomore Awet Beraki would lead the T-Birds with a fourth-place individual finish while Michael Iyali would earn a top-15 finish by taking 12th. Over on the women's side, the T-Birds would take eighth in the gold division and would be led by Melody Ochana who finished in 29th in her first collegiate 6K race while Pamela Milano would take 33rd overall.
The next scheduled competition for both the CCCC women and men will take place on Oct. 1 as Cloud County will be traveling down to Fayetteville, Ark., to take part in the Chili Pepper Festival. This year's collegiate meet has been moved to Friday while the high school portion of the meet will still be conducted on its traditional Saturday date.