Men's Cross Country | 9/4/2026 10:51:00 AM

The Cloud County Community College men's and women's cross country teams are set to open their 2026 seasons on Saturday, September 5 at the 78th annual JK Gold Classic in Wichita, Kansas.

The T-Birds will race at Clapp Cross Country Course at L.W. Clapp Park in Wichita for the third consecutive season. The race is hosted by Wichita State University. The race is scheduled for a 7:30 am start for the men's 6k and an 8 am start for the women's 5k.

The Cloud County women's cross country team checked in at No. 11 in the preseason 2026 NJCAA Division I Women's Cross Country National Coaches' Poll, which was released September 2 by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). The men's team is ranked No. 18 in the preseason edition of the 2026 NJCAA Division I Men's Cross Country National Coaches' Poll. The men return four runners from last year's squad that finished 23rd overall at the 2025 NJCAA Division I Cross Country Championships at Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge, Iowa. The women's team brings back just one runner from last year's team that recorded a 13th place finish at the 2025 NJCAA Division I Women's Cross Country Championships.

At last year's JK Gold Classic, Jade Williams finished the race with a time of 26:04.64 to place 105th overall. On the men's side, Davis Miltner finished 49th overall in a time of 20:23.24, guiding the T-Birds to a ninth place team finish, fourth among two-year schools. Other results saw Zeb Schultze take 106th with a time of 21:51.31, Jesus Baltazar crossed the finish line in 22:00.76 for 111th place, and Nicholas Johnson placed 131st in 23:00.88.

The women's 5k will consist of a 2k loop and a 3k loop. The men's 6k will have a pair of 3k laps. The course map and meet info can be found here.

Live results provided by MileSplit can be found here.

This is the first of four regular season races for Cloud County, who will be back in action September 19 for the Woody Greeno/Jay Dirksen Invitational in Lincoln, Nebraska. The regular season will continue October 3 with the 38th Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and the Fort Hays State University Tiger Open on October 10.

Postseason for the T-Birds will get underway with the 2026 Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference/NJCAA Region 6 Championships on October 30 at The Ollie in El Dorado, Kansas. Last season, the T-Bird women finished third overall at the Region 6 championships, while the men finished fifth. Finally, the T-Birds will wrap up their season on November 14 at the 2026 NJCAA Division I Cross Country National Championship in Huntsville, Alabama.

Fans can follow race results from the JK Gold Classic by visiting cloudtbirds.com, as well as following the Cloud County Athletic Department's social media channels on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook.