HOBBS, N.M. – Freshmen Austin Lettau and Maria Fernandez were their teams’ top individual runners for the Hutchinson Community College men’s and women’s cross country teams on Saturday at the NJCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in Hobbs, N.M.

In the team standings, HCC didn’t finish as high as it would have hoped. The Blue Dragon men tied with Cloud County for 28th with 743 points. The Lady Dragons were 32nd with 797 points.

“It was still a very good experience,” said HCC head coach Dave Smith, who took nine freshmen to the national championships. “We prepared well, but we had a couple of physical problems on both sides that limited our results. It was still a very positive experience.”

Lettau led the HCC men with a 138th-place finish in a time of 29:37.04. Freshman Zach Webber crossed the finish line in 144th with a time of 29:41.99. Freshman Andy Schepis placed 173rd with a mark of 30:07.14. A pair of sophomores then came across. Kyle Sooter was 180th in 30:14.55. Right on his heals was Julio Martinez in 30:14.62.

Freshman Isaac Williams placed 201st with a time of 30:40.31. Sophomore Nic Rogers placed 263rd in 33:08.43.

The Blue Dragon men had an average time of 29:59.07.

Fernandez was her usual self pacing the HCC women, but her constant running mate, fellow freshman Diosha Johnson, was unable to run because of injury. Fernandez was HCC’s only Top 100 placer at nationals on Saturday with a 93rd-place showing and a time of 21:37.15.

Freshman Taylor Stewart was HCC’s second runner, finishing in 217th place in a time of 24:05.73. Freshman Shannon Prescott was 221st in 24:12.49. Freshman Rebekah Sweet finished  225th in 24:18.38. Freshman Amber Boos was 240th in 25:07.81.

Sophomore Alexys Davis was 256th in a time of 25:56.04.

The Paradise Valley men and Iowa Central women were crowned team national champions on Saturday. The Garden City men finished second and the Cowley College women, who were ninth, were the highest-placing Jayhawk Conference teams.

(HCC Sports Information)