Women's Basketball | 10/23/2025 10:58:00 AM

The Cloud County Community College women's basketball team is picked to finish ninth in the 2025-26 Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) Division I Women's Basketball Predicted Order of Finish Poll.

The preseason poll, voted on by KJCCC head women's basketball coaches, was released on Thursday, October 23.

Under the direction of Cloud County Hall of Fame coach Brett Erkenbrack, the T-Birds return two players from its 2024-2025 team, which finished 17-13 overall. The T-Birds finished seventh in the conference with a 12-12 conference record and hosted a first round NJCAA Region 6 playoff game.

Cloud County returns 5-foot-10 forward Shea Wurtz from Clifton, Kansas. Wurtz made 14 starts last year where she led Cloud County in field-goal percentage at 48.8 percent, which ranked sixth best in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference. Wurtz also ranked third on the team in scoring, averaging 9.2 points per game while scoring in double-figures 13 times, with two games of 20-plus points.

Also returning is 5-foot-5 guard Lauren Marron of Kansas City, Kansas. Marron tied for fourth on the team in made three-pointers while averaging 2.7 points per game. She played a season-high 29 minutes against Cowley College on February 26, 2025, when she scored 13 points on 6-for-11 shooting from the field.

Erkenbrack has rounded out the lineup with an impressive recruiting class that includes one transfer and nine freshmen. Highlighting the list of newcomers is transfer Leila Washington, a 5-foot-10 forward from Garber, Oklahoma. Washington was a Second-Team All-NJCAA Region 2 selection last year at Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa, where she averaged a team-best 13.2 points per game on 41.6 percent shooting along with 6.6 rebounds per game and 1.1 blocks per game.

The freshman class consists of guards Sadie Cornell (Superior, NE), Jelena Jankovic (Belgrade, Serbia), Amanda Makela (Kotka, Finland), Camiah Muldrow (Fairburn, GA), Jazlene Ruiz (Las Cruces, NM), and Marilyn Soeken (Claiflin, KS), and forwards Kennedy Dodds (Manhattan, KS), Annika Moore (The Cayman Islands), and Sofija Todorovic (Cacak, Serbia).

The T-Birds will open their 2025-2026 campaign at home against Concordia University JV on November 1.

After winning a share of the KJCCC Division I Women's Basketball regular season title and NJCAA Region 6 Tournament crown last year, the Dodge City Community College women's basketball team has been picked to win the 2025-26 conference title. The Conquistadors secured 153 total points in the poll, edging out second place Hutchinson Community College which picked up 149 total points. Both Dodge City and Hutchinson earned three first-place votes each.

Coffeyville, Butler, Garden City, Cowley, Seward County, and Barton were all picked to finish ahead of the T-Birds.

Colby Community College was also picked ninth with Cloud County, followed by Independence, Pratt and Fort Hays Tech Northwest.