Kibet and Jemutai Lead Kansas Cross Country to All-Region Finishes at NCAA Midwest Regional

Friday, November 14

Stillwater, Okla.

Men: 10:00 AM | Women: 9:00 AM

University of Kansas

NCAA Midwest Regional

Kibet and Jemutai Lead Kansas Cross Country to All-Region Finishes at NCAA Midwest Regional

11/14/2025 5:50:00 PM | Cross Country

Women's 6K NCAA Regionals Results Men's 10K NCAA Regionals Results Photo Gallery

?STILLWATER, Okla. — The Kansas Cross Country teams were paced by a pair of All-Region finishes at the NCAA Midwest Regional, while the men's team placed 11th and the women's team finished 24th at the Greiner Family Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Kansas redshirt sophomore Emmah Jemutai finished 12th on the women's side in 20:36.0, while freshman Reagan Kibet finished 25th in 30:59.2 in the men's 10k, with both earning NCAA Midwest All-Region honors.

Race day began with the women's 6K, with four nationally ranked teams competing in No. 6 Iowa State, No. 8 Oklahoma State, No. 11 Northwestern, and No. 27 Missouri. Kansas started strong with Jemutai jumping out to eighth place for the first 2,500 meters. At the 2,830 meter mark, Jemutai had dropped a place to ninth, and slid a bit further to 13th at the 4000 meter mark, but remained only 0.9 seconds behind ninth place.

Jemutai continued to fight throughout the race, closing the final 1,114 meters strong and jumping back up to 12th place with a finishing time of 20:36.0. Kaitlyn Swartz was the next Jayhawk finisher in 22:15.9 and 91st (89) place.

Kansas assistant head cross country coach Michael Whittlesey commented on Jemutai's focus without other Jayhawks near her. Emmah found one of her high school rivals and she locks in really well with her and I thought she did a great job of maintaining that focus…She fought really hard, especially over the last kilometer, and caught a couple more of those girls. She had to catch at least one of the other individuals and was able to do that in the last 400 meters.

Mia Murray was the third Jayhawk to cross the line in 23:19.1 in 175th (169) place. Freshmen Naomi Hunter and Abby O'Leary finished in 184th (177) and 202nd (192) to round out the Jayhawks' top five, while Bethany Druse concluded the Kansas runners in 223rd (211). Kansas finished with 639 points in 24th place out of 32 teams in the region. Oklahoma State won with 55 points, while Northwestern finished second with 86 points.

Jemutai's 12th-place finish puts her in a good position to potentially qualify for the NCAA Championships on Saturday, Nov. 22 in Columbia, Mo. Oklahoma State and Northwestern earned the team auto-qualifier spots with Oklahoma State finishing first with 55 points and Northwestern finishing second with 86 points.

Emmah did a great job. We'll have to wait for the official results tomorrow, in terms of selection, but we're pretty confident that she will get one of the individual slots. She had a great, great race. Whittlesey said, She put herself right in the mix from the get-go and had to compete the entire way and stayed extremely focused.

On the men's side, Kansas had another strong showing, led again by Kibet. Kibet and Paul Ngasharr leapt out to a strong start, running in 29th and 32nd place at the 4,114 meter mark, before Ngasharr dropped out around the 5,000 meter mark. Kibet, however, continued strong among the top-30 runners for the remaining half of the race. In the end, Kibet finished in 25th place with a time of 30:59.2 in his first-ever collegiate 10K to lead Kansas.

Reagan did a really nice job of finding a pack of guys and just sticking and riding with that group…you can create a friend out of your enemy and use them to help get through a stickier part of the race and then outcompete them at the end part of the race. I thought he did that really well. Whittlesey said.

Tanner Talley was the second finisher across the line for the Jayhawks with a time of 21:54.4 in 46th place in his last collegiate cross country race. Ryo Higuchi moved up six spots over the final kilometer to finish 59th, while Quenton Walion climbed seven spots to finish 73rd in his final cross country race. Sawyer Schmidt closed out the Jayhawks' top five in 79th place, while Parker Walion finished his first collegiate 10K in 109th to round out the Jayhawks.

On the men's side, I thought we were executing the race plan really well. Unfortunately, Paul goes down with an injury and we lose our number two runner, Whittlesey said about the men's race. That hurt…but we thought we were going to move through the second half [of the race] stronger than we did…But, I thought the guys execution and discipline was really good, we just didn't catch as many teams and people as we thought.

Overall, Kansas finished with 282 points in 11th place. No. 1 Oklahoma State won with 38 points, while No. 2 Iowa State took second with 41 points.

Entering the day, Kansas hoped to qualify for the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2015, when the women's team qualified. The Jayhawks were looking to send their first individual runners since 2023, when Lona Latema and Chandler Gibbens qualified.

The top two teams in the automatically qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships, while another 13 teams across the nine regions would be awarded at-large bids. Outside of the qualifying teams in the region, the next fastest four individuals qualify to move on, with two at large individuals across the nine regions also available beyond the four automatic qualifiers.

The Kansas teams will now look to build upon the momentum from cross country to have a strong track season.

On the men's side we grew a lot and it was great to have our best race be at the conference meet…there was a lot of growth and as a middle distance group we are a lot stronger heading into the track season…we do lose two of our veteran leaders in Quenton [Walion] and Tanner [Talley] but we have some young guys that are ready to step up, Whittlesey said.

On the women's side there was definitely a lot of growth for our younger girls to run the cross country season. There were some benefits of that team being able to coalesce themselves around each other and knowing they had a battle on their hands, and they took on the challenge. There was a lot of growth from that group and I'm excited about their determination and focus.

UP NEXT:
The NCAA Cross Country Championship Selection Show will air at 4 p.m. CT on Saturday, Nov. 15 as Jemutai seeks an at-large bid to the NCAA Cross Country Championships, which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 22 in Columbia, Mo.