Kansas’ Men’s Team Places 5th, Women’s Team 7th place at Gans Creek Classic

Friday, September 26

Columbia, Mo.

Men: 8:15 AM | Women: 10:30 AM

University of Kansas

Gans Creek Classic

Lawrence, KS - August 30, 2025 - Parker Wailon during Bob Timmons Cross Country Challenge at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, KS. Photo by Anaya Boseman/Kansas Athletics

Photo by: Anaya Boseman/Kansas Athletics

Kansas’ Men’s Team Places 5th, Women’s Team 7th place at Gans Creek Classic

9/26/2025 5:33:00 PM | Cross Country

Live Results

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Kansas Cross Country teams continued their seasons on Friday, with the men's team placing fifth and the women's team finishing seventh at the Gans Creek Classic in Columbia, Mo. The meet featured a diverse field of high-caliber teams, with both the men's and women's fields comprising 26 teams.

Freshman Reagan Kibet led the way for the men, finishing in 23:52.6 and placing ninth overall to earn six points in his first official collegiate cross country race. Sophomore Kaitlyn Swartz was the first Jayhawk to cross the finish line in the women's race, with a new personal best 6K time of 21:00.7, placing 12th and earning ten points.

"Reagan [Kibet] had a really really nice race. He executed the race plan extremely well." Kansas assistant head coach Michael Whittlesey said after the race. "Kaitlyn Swartz [also] had a great race and really moved well throughout. She had very even splits through the entire race, and just kept climbing the ladder… Her and Reagan [Kibet] were both number one runners today and both executed about the same way. They continued to grind through the entire race and had great competitive focus, so I was really pleased with both of them."

The men kicked things off in the morning with their 8K race. Things started off strong for the Jayhawks, with their runners running together as one through the first four kilometers. By the fifth kilometer, Kibet and senior Tanner Talley had broken off from the pack and were climbing the rankings, sitting in 51st and 52nd place.

"We had four guys together through about 4K. We're hoping to have them through 6K. Reagan and Tanner moved through the field really well from 4K on, and Reagan closed great." Whittlesey said.

At the seven-kilometer mark, Kibet and Talley were still together until Kibet found another gear. Kibet ran the fastest final kilometer of any runner in the race, vaulting himself from 19th place to finish ninth overall out of 253 runners.

Talley drifted back and joined the rest of his group, finishing as the fourth Jayhawk in 65th and earning 42 points. Ryo Higuchi climbed 13 spots in the final kilometer to place 52nd (32 points), with a new personal best 8K time of 24:24.6. Parker Walion also set a personal best 8K time of 24:29.0, placing 57th (35 points). Quenton Walion rounded out the top five for Kansas with his 91st-place finish (42 points).

In addition to Kibet, Whittlesey commented on the rest of his men runners as a whole. "[Ryo] Higuchi had a really nice race for us and Parker Walion had a great race. We needed to have our guys that were running as our fourth, fifth, and sixth, our veterans be up much higher to have a better overall team race, but for the young guys, it was a great start to the year."

Sawyer Schmidt, Hobbs Campbell, and Lenny Njoroge also competed, placing 95th, 114th, and 152nd, respectively.

For the women, the 6K also started off according to plan, with the team running together behind Emmah Jemutai. Jemutai finished the first kilometer in 33rd place, but never dropped below 23rd after that point, pushing the pace for the Jayhawks.

"We sent Emmah [Jemutai] out a little bit faster…We had some people later on have heat-related issues as it started getting warmer later in the day, and we need to be tougher through that part of it, but Emmah had a good, solid race, and Tori Wingrove had a good, solid race." Whittlesey said.

Swartz was right there with Jemutai throughout the race, running consistently in every split. At the five-kilometer mark, Swartz and Jemutai were five seconds apart, with Swartz in 17th and Jemutai in 23rd. In the final kilometer, both maintained their pace, with Swartz running a one-second faster pace, and Jemutai running a nearly identical time as the fifth kilometer.

When the racers reached the finish line, Swartz had jumped five places, and Jemutai held consistent, placing 12th and 23rd to earn 10 and 19 points. Bob Timmons Classic winner Tori Wingrove placed 50th (34 points) as the third Jayhawk across the line. Laya Erickson and Naomi Hunter placed 128th (89 points) and 129th (90 points).

The women's team finished with 242 points to place seventh. Stanford won with an impressive 53 points, which was 87 less than second-place Texas A&M-CC.

Olivia Krueger and Mia Murray also raced for Kansas, finishing 140th and 149th.

"Everyone is learning, and even the veterans have to learn from their first race. It's about how well we respond to it. It wasn't a great race for us, but it wasn't a bad race for us." Whittlesey concluded. "To me, adversity is what you always get in athletics, and how you become great is how you respond to it… If we mature as well as we did last year, we're going to be in really good shape when we start hitting the championship phase."

UP NEXT:
Kansas will have another break before traveling back to Columbia to compete in the Pre-National Invitational. The Pre-National Invitational is set to take place on Saturday, October 18th, at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course.