Grizzly Women Win Region 6 Cross Country Championship
WINFIELD, Kan. – The Butler women’s cross country team raced its way to a Region 6 championship on Friday morning at the Kansas Veterans Home.
WINFIELD, Kan. – The Butler women's cross country team raced its way to a Region 6 championship on Friday morning at the Kansas Veterans Home as part of the 2024 KJCCC/NJCAA Region 6 Cross Country Championships.
In head coach Mark Emerson's first season, the Grizzly women (69 points) took first place in the region behind three top-15 finishes as they edged out Hutchinson (70 points) and Dodge City (73 points). When the unofficial results came in it looked as if the Region title would come down to a tiebreaker with the Grizzlies and Blue Dragons both sitting at 70 points but the official results were eventually delivered and the Grizzlies eked out the title.
Click here for the full results.
The Grizzlies are Jayhawk East and Region 6 champions for the first time since 2015 when the Ryan Turner led Grizzlies won the Region and Jayhawk West for a second consecutive season.
It marks the Butler women's 11th all-time Region 6 championship as they won eight straight under the direction of Kirk Hunter (current Wichita State distant coach) from 2001-2008. The Jayhawk East title is Butler's 17th conference title, with the other 16 coming when the Grizzlies competed on the KJCCC West side.
Freshman Elizabeth Hernandez continued her strong season finishing fifth (17:42.85) to lead the Grizzly pack.
Jesica Mbhamali followed Hernandez in 10th (18:39.40), and then came Alison Unruh in 12th (18:42.10), Valyrie Freeman in 22nd (19:45.52), Alexa Marshall in 32nd (20:26.83), La Tanya Johnson in 44th (21:20.67) and Jennifer Casas in 51st (22:07.13).
Butler will next compete at the NJCAA Division I Cross Country championships on November 9th in Richmond, Virginia at Pole Green Park.