STEVE CARPENTER
HutchCC Sports Information
Hutchinson Community College freshman Collin Oswalt jumped right into the jungle known as Jayhawk Conference cross country on Friday and didn’t back down.
Oswalt, a Hutchinson Central Christian product, had a tremendous Blue Dragon debut with a fourth-place finish at the season-opening Terry Masterson Twilight Classic at Fun Valley.
Oswalt dueled with Cloud County’s Awet Beraki and Fort Scott’s Gudisa Andow, two of the top KJCCC runners from last season, and Garden City freshman Dennis Mutai.
Oswalt stayed with that lead pack most of the first three laps of the four-lap, 4-mile men’s race. That group started to separate during the final mile. The Blue Dragon freshman finished fourth overall with a time of 20:38.2. That time was the 15th best time in Masterson Twilight history.
Garden City’s Mutai won the race in 19:47.7, which was 17.8 seconds ahead of Beraki (20:06.5). Adnow was third in 20:26.7.
The Blue Dragons weren’t able to post a team score on Friday with only four runners able to compete.
Sophomore Andrew Holt the second Blue Dragon to finish. He placed 34th with a time of 22:37.5. Holt cut 9 full seconds off his freshman Masterson Twilight time.
Freshman Carsyn Turpin placed 39th in his Blue Dragon debut with a time of 22:55.4.
Sophomore Aaron Geissinger was 47th overall in a time of 23:08.1. Geissinger improved 29 full seconds from his freshman Masterson Twilight time.
Cloud County repeated as Masterson Twilight team champion with 65 points and three runners finishing in the Top 10. Cowley College was second with 102 points and Washburn was third with 118 points.
The race time was moved up 3 hours became of the potential of heavy rain on Friday night.
The Blue Dragons will run their first 8,000-meter race of the season on September 18 at the Bethel Rogers-Muthama Classic in North Newton, KS.