Jayhawks Fourth, Sixth at Big 12 Cross Country Championship

WACO, Texas – The Kansas men’s and women’s cross country teams began the postseason portion of their 2019 season Saturday morning, November 2, as they competed in the 24th annual Big 12 Cross Country Championship at the Cottonwood Creek Golf Club in Waco, Texas, and hosted by the University of Baylor.

The men’s 8K got league competition started at 10 a.m. (CT), followed by the women’s 6K at 11 a.m. (CT). The Iowa State Cyclones claimed the men’s team title for the third-consecutive year while the Oklahoma State Cowgirls won their first league title since 2015. On the men’s side, ISU was followed by Oklahoma State and Texas while Kansas came in fourth and the top-five was rounded out by Texas Tech.

"I thought it was a good competition for our men's team. We had some disappointments among the team, but overall I thought they did well. We were hoping for third (place) and we fell just short of our goal."

Stanley Redwine, Kansas cross country head coach

The Jayhawk women finished just outside of the top-five teams in the conference, coming in sixth with 167 points. Ahead of them were: Texas Tech in fifth place (tot155 points), Iowa State in fourth with 77 points. The women’s team title came down to a matter of mere points, as the top three finishing schools were separated by a  total of six points: Oklahoma State was crowned the champion with 52, while the Texas Longhorns were the runner-up with 54 and West Virginia came in third with 56 points.

"Our hope was to come in and do better today; unfortunately, did it not happen. In order for us to compete at a major competition like this, we need to be 100% healthy. "

Coach Redwine

The Iowa State Cyclones swept the individual titles with Individually, Edwin Kurgat finished first in the men’s 8K with his time of 23:36.3, which helped him clinch the individual Big 12 title for the second-consecutive season. On the women’s side, Cailie Logue of Iowa State followed suit and won the women’s 6K in 20:08.2 time, which was also her second individual Big 12 title in as many years.

Additionally, the top-15 finishers in each race earned All-Big 12 honors. Included among those recipients was KU freshman Chandler Gibbens, who helped pace the Jayhawk men to fourth place overall with his individual clocking of 24:06.0, which was good for 12th place.

Following Gibbens, rounding out the top-five runners for the Jayhawk men in Waco today were:
16. Michael MELGARES, 24:10.1
17. Dylan HODGSON, 24:12.5
21. Ben BUTLER, 24:16.4
26. Jake RALSTON, 24:42.5

For the women’s team, Kansas’ top-five runners at the  2019 Big 12 Cross Country Championship were:
30. Cameron GUELDNER, 21:43.4
35. Lona LATEMA, 21:54.7
36. Ally RYAN, 21:57.1
39. Riley COONEY, 22:00.0
44. Catherine LIGGETT, 22:11.5

"Even though Chandler is just a freshman, he has been our leader throughout the year. He's a great competitor, a great guy. This honor is well deserved for all the hard work he's put in so far this season. We are looking forward to seeing what he can do in our upcoming meets. "

Coach Redwine

UP NEXT
Kansas cross country will be back in action for the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships on Friday, November 15. Race times at the OSU Cross Country Course are yet to be released. The OSU Cross Country Course recently underwent multi-million dollar renovation in preparation for this year’s Midwest Regionals and the upcoming 2020 NCAA Cross Country Championships.