Men's Cross Country | 8/28/2025 4:12:00 PM

The Cloud County Community College men's cross country team will open the 2025 season ranked No. 23 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) preseason national coaches' poll.

The Cloud County men's team is coming off a 17th place finish at the 2024 NJCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, which marked the highest finish for the T-Birds since their 11th-place team finish in the 2021 national championships.

The T-Birds return three members from last year's squad, including sophomore Gelasa Degefa Abdisa from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Abdelaziz Benbrahim from Marrakech, Morocco, and Cody Sharp from Leonardville, Kansas.

In the preseason national coaches' poll released on Wednesday, August 27, the T-Bird men were one of seven Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) schools picked to finish in the top 25. Butler Community College and Hutchinson Community College are both ranked in the top five at second and fourth, respectively. Garden City Community College checks in at No. 12. Colby Community College was picked to finish 19th, while Fort Hays Tech Northwest was picked to finish 20th. Dodge City Community College checks in at No. 22.

The Cloud County men are set to open the 2025 season on Saturday, September 6 at the 77th annual JK Gold Classic in Wichita, Kansas. The meet, hosted by Wichita State University, will be held at Clapp Cross Country Course. The men's course will be a 6k race, beginning at 8 am, while the women will compete in a 5k race starting at 8:30 am.