Hutchinson native Yazmine Wright wins another Wichita State cross country AAC title
The breakthrough season for Wichita State senior Yazmine Wright reached its apex on Friday morning when the Hutchinson native won the individual title at the American Athletic Conference cross country championships in Florida.
Running against the AAC’s finest, Wright pulled away late from the field in the 6,000-meter race to finish in first place by more than 15 seconds with her time of 21 minutes, 3.3 seconds.
Wright continued WSU’s stranglehold at the top of the women’s AAC race, as the Shockers have now won four straight titles following Winny Koskei’s reign as a three-time champion from 2018-20. In fact, WSU has produced 10 conference champions since 2005.
Wright has been in rare form this season, claiming three race titles before the AAC title on Friday. She turned heads with her victory at the Gans Creek Invitational hosted by Missouri, then continued with another strong run two weeks again to win the Bradley Pink Classic.
Now she etched her name in the WSU record books with the victory on Friday, as the Shockers finished in sixth place as a team. Danielle Rinn also picked up medalist honors, finishing in 11th place in a time of 22:02.5.
The WSU men’s team had a strong showing in the 8-kilometer race, as the Shockers finished in second place as a team with 63 points.
WSU had a strong pack of runners with Shadrack Chumba (ninth, 24:35), Adam Moore (10th, 24:37), Bryce Merriman (12th, 24:39) and Clayton Duchatschek (14th, 24:45) and then another cluster with Trey Rios (19th, 25:11), Jed Helker (20th, 25:17) and Jackson Caldwell (21st, 25:19).
This story was originally published October 29, 2021 at 11:40 AM.
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