STEVE CARPENTER
HutchCC Sports Information
All-American Louise Cocking earned her fifth Top-5 finish to lead the Hutchinson Community College Women’s Cross Country Team at the season-opening Terry Masterson Twilight Classic on Friday at Fun Valley.
The 2021 opener was a tough one for the Blue Dragons as a team. The Blue Dragons finished eighth of the 13 teams that posted a team score on Friday.
Cocking was the only Hutchinson runner in the Top 25. The rest of the team finished between 55th and 70th overall.
The 2021 edition of the Masterson Twilight wasn’t exactly run under the lights. The start of the race was moved up three hours to avoid potential heavy rains for later in the evening. While the race temperature was in the mid-80s and under cloud cover, the runners battled extremely high humidity.
Cocking was the race leader well into the second of three 1-mile laps around Fun Valley. She was in a lead pack of four runners throughout the race.
During the final lap, Washburn’s Patricia Koma took charge and won the race with the 12th-fastest time in Masterson Twilight history of 18:54.4. Kansas Wesleyan’s Stephanie Martinez was second in 19:05.4.
Cowley’s Karissa Glover edged Cocking for third by 0.7 seconds. Cocking ran a time of 19:07.7, a second slower than her freshman time last season.
Sophomore Noelle Hidalgo was the next Blue Dragon to finish. She was 55th in a time of 21:50.7.
Freshman Anastasia Meyer placed 62nd with a time of 22:20.8.
Freshman Michele Gage 22:32.1 to place 66th. Freshman Sydney Grauer was 69th in a time of 22:44.3. Freshman Aidyn White placed 70th in a time of 22:46.4.
The Blue Dragons finished with 22 points. Washburn University won the women’s team title with 48 points. Dodge City was second with 81 and Cloud County was third with 105 points.
The Blue Dragons will run their first 5,000-meter race of the season on September 18 at the Bethel Rogers-Muthama Classic in North Newton, KS.