The men's and women's cross-country teams traveled to Hays, Kansas this weekend to compete in the 7th annual Fort Hays State University Tiger Open race. 2018 marked CCU's sixth trip to this meet that has quickly grown to a sizeable and important inter-conference meet amongst schools in the surrounding states, having a noticeable impact on post-season rankings and National Championships qualifications.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:
 
The first two races of the day, distinguished as the "black" races, contained mostly junior and community colleges, along with additional runners from many four-year schools attending. CCU had a handful of athletes compete in these races, but not enough to qualify for a team score.
 
The third race of the day was the women's gold 5k race where a team of eight Cougars took to the course. Drawing the first starting slot is typically not preferable, but today it was a welcome advantage. Over the past few days, Hays has seen significant rain which had taken a noticeable toll on the course, specifically the starting area, so drawing the first slot gave the Cougar women a path around much of the muck initially. The Cougar women would go on to combined for a 7th place finish.
 
The race quickly stretched out and a lead pack formed in less than a mile, senior Mandee Middleton was part of it. As the lead group came within sight of the finish line Middleton was still within the top finishers and completed the race in 7th place overall, triumphing over many RMAC foes and multiple Division I opponents that made the trip as well. Her time of 18:31.1 was her best in three attempts at this meet.
 
Teammate Kayla Hanson also found herself in the top 25 of the gold race, crossing the finish line in 20th place in a time of 19:10.4. The scoring was rounded out by Ana Muehlbauer (43rd),  Tessa Hooper (64th), and Christina Hamerly (75th).
 
The men's gold 8k race finished off the event and the Cougars stacked the race with 10 runners. The 10 Cougars were able to leg out a 12th place finish when all was said and done. The race was crowded to say the least, with roughly 60% of the men's participants staying densely packed for nearly half of the race.
 
Leading the pack for CCU today was Nicholas Skinner, a junior transfer from Kansas State, who made his CCU debut in this race. Skinner came in 21st place overall finishing in 25:43.2. The remaining Cougar men finished in the order of Ryder Searle (61st), Josh Pierantoni (76th), Luke Bruns (98th), and Robbie Jordano (128th).
 
UP NEXT:
 
The Cougs will focus on balancing a life of rest and training in hopes of peaking perfectly in three weeks when Colorado Christian University hosts the men's and women's RMAC Championships on November 3rd, in Arvada, CO.