2023-24 Shocker Women's XC and Track & Field

[1972Shocker]

Cassie, a Maize High School grad, competed for the Shockers in 2009-2013

WSU All-Time Top 10 Lists
#3 in indoor pole vault (13' 2 ^1/4")
#3 in indoor 60m hurdles (8.54)
#3 in outdoor pole vault (13-4 1/2)

NCAA West Preliminary Qualifier - 2010; 2012

Missouri Valley Conference Champion - 2010, Outdoor Pole Vault; 2011, Indoor Pole Vault; 2012, Outdoor Pole Vault
All-Missouri Valley Conference - 2010 Outdoor, 2011 Indoor, 2013 Outdoor, 2013 Outdoor

I can see where a pole vaulter would make a good stuntwoman.

[1972Shocker]

Meet Info

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Ready for Home Opener at Brand-New Course

The men's 6K race begins at 8:25 a.m. followed by the women's 5K at 8:45 a.m. For the full schedule including high school races, visit the home meet info page. The Shockers are set to race against Emporia State, Newman, Kansas Wesleyan, Friends, Mid-America Christian and Cowley.

"Every year, it's great to get everybody out there, have them starting to race again and just see where we really are," head coach Kirk Hunter said. "Practices are not the same as racing, so after this weekend a lot of questions will be answered, and we're going to know a lot about where we're headed this season."

"The course we ran on for my entire career here, I could tell you every inch of it, and I knew everything to tell anybody on that course," Hunter said. "This course, I know better than anybody, but I still don't know exactly how it's going to run because we haven't raced on it. I'm going to learn a lot about how this course races, how the athletes will adjust to it and how they need to move on different things. It's going to be fun to see the results and see how it plays out."

As with most season openers for the Shockers, Hunter will race a majority of the newcomers unattached before deciding whether to put them in uniform or redshirt the remainder of the season.

"I almost never race freshmen in uniform the first meet because it's a way to protect them and protect their season if anything goes wrong or they're not ready," Hunter said. "We get to gauge them a little bit without having to race them in uniform, and after this week is done, we will reevaluate and determine who will be in uniform for the season."

Wichita State returns an all-conference runner for the 2023 season in Sarah Bertry. The Shocker women added two freshman and two-time NJCAA outdoor track and field champion, Lucy Ndungu, a junior transfer from Cloud County Community College.

[1972Shocker]

RH: Sarah Bertry Found a Place to Study and Run Long Distance

Like many student-athletes from overseas, Sarah Bertry came to the United States because of a college system where academics and athletics co-exist.

"It's one of the best places to do both," she said. "In most European countries, if you're studying, you're studying and that's it. I always wanted to study somewhere else than just in France, so I can get some more experience, know a new culture, get to know the people."

Bertry, Wichita State's top returning distance runner, is enjoying both parts of her college experience in the United States. She is a political science major who is considering studying anthropology in graduate school after taking a course from Dr. Kartikeya Saboo, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology.

"We learned about older civilizations and the way they saw the world and how it impacted how they would speak, how they would behave and live their daily life," she said. "It's really mind-opening to see the way we do things is not always the right way, it's just another way to do things."

The running part of her college life is also going well. Bertry, a junior from Annecy, France, earned All-American Athletic Conference honors last season by finishing 13^th in the championship meet with a time of 21 minutes, 35.2 seconds, a personal best, in the 6k.

She transferred from New Mexico Junior College a year ago. Coach Kirk Hunter wasn't sure how her times would translate to a higher level.

"She came in and immediately started being successful," he said. "She's a fierce competitor and it showed with her getting all-conference in cross country. The girl really rises to another level when it's important."

Bertry is expected to again run as one of the Shocker leaders. Junior Miranda Dick placed 17^th at the conference meet with a time of 21:43. Lucy Ndungu, a transfer from Cloud County Community College, placed fourth in the NJCAA Championships last fall with a time of 18:21 in the 5k race. The Shockers finished fifth in the conference in 2022.

[1972Shocker]

JK Gold Classic Results

Competing against Non-D1 competition the Shocks dominated this race as expected. As the Shocks had 9 of the Top 11 spots with an Emporia State runner and a Cowley College runner finishing 9th and 10th. Actually, Abeba Sullivan who competed her Shocker eligibility last year finished 2nd running unattached.

The winner of the 5k race, as was the case for the men, was newcomer Lucy Ndungu (pronounced Doon-goo) a junior transfer from St. Louis via Cloud County CC, in a time of 17:42.50. Excluding Abeba Sullivan she as followed by Jr. Sarah Bertry, Sr. Lubna Aldulaimi, Jr. Miranda Dick, and Fr. Isabel Hartnett, who was also running unattached.. The top 4 runners were grouped pretty well with only 13.5 seconds separating 1 through 4 with the freshman Hatnett another 49 seconds back.. The total combined time of the top 5 finishers was 1:30.46.

It is a little difficult to compare times for races on different courses and, of course, weather conditiond can very as well. but last year the Shocker's winning time in this meet at Raft Golf Course in Augusta was Abeba Sullivan's 18:12.90 with the top 5 times totaling 1:34.31.

Seems like a good solid opening effort for this year's women's team. Looks they picked up a good one with Lucy Doin-Good. It would be nice if Isabel or one of her teammates can pulll a little closer to the pack in that #5 spot. Hopefully, they are on track to move up just a little from last years 5th finish in the AAC, although I am not sure what the newcomers bring to the AAC in XC.

Ndungu, a transfer from Cloud County Community College, spent her summer in Colorado training in the altitude and the Great Sand Dunes near Alamosa. She ran 60-75 miles a week. The hard work showed as Lucy Lucy Ndungu claimed her first win as a Shocker in her Wichita State debut, running a huge personal best of 17:42.5 in the 5K to beat the rest of the field by over 15 seconds. Lucy smashed her previous personal best by almost 30 seconds. All 5 of the top finishers for the Shockers set new PBs. Sarah Bertry beat her 5K XC time in last years JK Gold Classic by 35 seconds; Lubna Aldulaimi beat her best time she ran in October 2020 at the NJCAA Region VI Championships by 1 second (by far her fastest time as a Juco athlete at Cowley County). Hopefully, Lubna is on her way to finishing of her collegiate career with bit of a splash. Miranda Dick beat her previous best she set last September in Nebraska by 22 seconds.

"It was incredible," Ndungu said. "I know I've been working toward this, and I feel like I had more still in me, but it felt really amazing."

From the looks of this finishing sprint I say she really does have more in the tank:

"She's been looking really easy in practice, and I think the biggest thing was the summer training she did," Hunter said. "She really upped her game a lot this summer and increased her mileage base, and it was pretty impressive. It really paid off today because she looked really good."

[1972Shocker]

Not sure two teams qualifies as "so many" but nevetheless kudos to the Women's basketball and tennis teams.

I'm sure this is something ADKS is trying to encourate.

[1972Shocker]

Got a chuckle out of Lucy Ndungu trying to flex. Fortunately for Lucy she doesn't have any big, heavy muscles to way her down, nor any fat. Looking forward to how she fares against stronger competition after winniin the JK Gold Classic in her Shocker debut.

The Shockers will race against 32 colleges and universities, including five Division I Midwest Region teams, Creighton, Drake, Iowa State, Kansas and Nebraska.

The women will run another 5K race before bumping up to a 6K later in the season.

[1972Shocker]

PR's all-round is nice and those new PR's were more than just a little it.

Comparing times and improvements from the J.K. Gold Classic last week:

Lucy lowered her time from 17:42.5 to 17:19.7 for a 22.8 second improvement
Miranda lowered her time from 18:03.5 to 17:36.6 for a 26.9 second improvement
Lubna lowered her time from 18:04.4 to 17:52.4 for a 12.0 second improvement
Jenna lowered her time from 18:50.5 to 18:07.6 for a 42.9 second improvement
Isabell lowered her time from 18:43.8 in her collegiate debut to 18:14.4 for a 29.4 second improvement

The total combined time of the Shocks top 5 finishers was 1:29:10.7 vs 1:30.46 last week.

Lucy, Miranda, Lubna and Isabell were all in the Top 5 last week. However Sarah Bertry who was 2nd among the Lady Shocks last week is not among the top 5 this week. Possible that she did not run in this meet. If that is the case and it is due to injury let's hope it is minor. Jenna Muma however stepped up with the biggest improvement from her time last week.

The cooler weather this week may have contributed to the improved times. Not sure how the courses compare otherwise.

The Lady Shocks finished 3rd but I haven't seen any team standings or how far they were behind the the two teams who finished ahead them.

Let's hope these good times continue as the move up to 6k races.

[1972Shocker]

From the goshockers.com write-up:

"It was a pretty strong performance," head coach Kirk Hunter said. "I'm happy for the kids who got their personal records, and I do believe that there were some significant improvements, and now I have to evaluate where we really stand."

Team standings for the 7 D-1 teams competing:
https://results.blacksquirreltiming....1019934/scores

[1972Shocker]

[1972Shocker]

Lucy Ndungu Named AAC XC Athlete of the Week

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/9/1...-the-week.aspx

Lucy Ndungu earned her first American Athletic Conference Cross Country Athlete of the Week award.

The junior transfer from Cloud County CC ran her second-consecutive 5K personal best to place third in the red division (Division I) at the Greeno/Dirsken Invitational.

Ndungu's time of 17:19.7 is the fourth-fastest 5K in the conference this season and is 51 seconds ahead of her best time entering the season.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocker women will run their first 6K of the season Saturday at 9:45 a.m. at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia, Mo.

COACH HUNTER ON…

...the women using the good competition to their advantage:
"If Colorado brings their A team, that's going to make a significant race in terms of competition. It's going to be a lot faster than anticipated. This could be a really good meet for the girls to have the same big situation as the guys where they have to handle some really high-level competition where they're not up front like they have been. This is a fantastic opportunity for the girls to improve their ranking. I hope that they're able to succeed and race as strong as they did at Nebraska, and I think if they do, they're going to do really well."

...keys to success for Lucy Ndungu:
" If Lucy's smart, she has to target people she knows. She needs to approach it by first finding the people she knows and racing those people because that's what's going to make her succeed, and that goes for every one of the girls."