RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.10 (Cross Country)

Back-to-back! Lokedi repeats as the #Big12XC Women’s Champion! #KUxc pic.twitter.com/SabwESaunS

— Kansas Cross Country (@KansasXC) October 28, 2017

That finish line feeling! Sharon Lokedi goes BACK-2??-BACK as #Big12XC Women’s Champ! #KUxc

A post shared by Kansas Track and Field (@kutrack) on Oct 28, 2017 at 8:43am PDT

Prior to the 2017 cross country season, Sharon Lokedi had already etched her name into the Kansas history books. Lokedi won the 2016 Big 12 Women’s Cross Country individual title – the first Kansas women’s runner to do so in the history of the program.
 
Not only did she win the conference title, she went on to place fifth at the NCAA Championships to become the first Kansas women’s runner to earn two All-America honors, after placing 10th in 2015 at the national meet.
 
All of these accolades were hard earned and Lokedi notched another accomplishment at the 2017 Big 12 Championship, where won her second title to become just the fourth female in conference history to win multiple crowns and the first to do so since 2008.
 
With the back-to-back title runs, Lokedi is just the ninth Kansas runner in cross country history to win multiple conference championships, and the first since Benson Chesang repeated as Big 12 champ in 2004 and 2005. Prior to Chesang, no Kansas runner had won multiple conference titles since the 1950s, when the Jayhawks were members of the Big Seven.
 
With the NCAA Midwest Regional meet coming up on Friday, November 10, Lokedi will look to earn her third trip to the NCAA Championships where she aims to set another accomplishment – to become the first runner is Kansas cross country history – men’s and women’s – to be a three-time All-American.
 
A career with a list of accomplishments like Lokedi’s would easily put her among the all-time greats of Kansas cross country history – but the most impressive part of it all is that she is only a junior.