Championship Central

COLBY, Kan. – With three top 10 individual finishers including individual champion Mildred Rono, the Hutchinson Community College women’s cross country team was able to hold off Butler Community College to earn the 2025 NJCAA Region 6 Division 1 Women’s Cross Country Title at Meadow Lake Golf Course in Colby, Kansas on Friday, October 24th.

A year removed from being on the opposite end of a battle between the Blue Dragons and Grizzlies for a Region 6 title, HCC managed to put enough separation between the two teams to finish with 48 total points after having their five scoring runners all finish in the top-20 to best the 56-point total that was scored by BCC. Three of Hutchinson’s runners managed to earn All-NJCAA Region 6 honors, led by Rono’s individual title in a time of 17:10.69 to give the Blue Dragons the individual winner for the second-straight year while Ashara Frater placed fourth (18:09.22) and Mali Lovett took eighth (18:52.71). Butler had four runners finish in the top 15 to earn All-Region 6 honors, including runner-up Elizabeth Hernandez (17:56.47), along with Madison Busch (12th, 19:40.02), Amanda Kotambe (13th, 19:42.81), and Ellie Callaway (15th, 19:47.30).

Other team scores within the NJCAA Region 6 Division 1 team scoring saw Cloud County earn a third-place finish with 66 total points, followed by Garden City (70 points), Dodge City (104 points), meet host Colby (148 points), and Coffeyville (192 points).  

The lone NJCAA Region 6 Division 2 women’s cross country team to field a full team to record a team score was Cowley, with the Tigers having the top six runners to win the Division 2 Region 6 crown with a score of 15 points.  

As for the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference East and West Division titles, Butler won the East Division with 19 total points after having five of the top six finishers while Hutchinson won the KJCCC West Division title with 37 total points. Other teams that recorded scores in the KJCCC East Division team race included Cowley (36 points) and Coffeyville (80 points) while the KJCCC West Division saw Garden City take second over Cloud County on a tiebreaker after both teams finished with 53 total points, while Dodge City (81 points) was fourth and Colby (113 points) was fifth.

All-NJCAA Region 6 Runners (Top-15 Overall Finishers)

1. Mildred Rono (Hutchinson) - 17:10.69

2. Elizabeth Hernandez (Butler) - 17:56.47

3. Meryeme Mai (Garden City) - 17:58.61 

4. Ashara Frater (Hutchinson) - 18:09.22 

5. Nontokozo Ncube (Cloud County) - 18:39.34

6. Reid Harvey-McKean (Garden City) - 18:40.33

7. Mercy Angaamchaab (Cloud County) - 18:44.01

8. Mali Lovett (Hutchinson) - 18:52.71 

9. Maureen Jepchirchir (Cloud County) - 19:25.83 

10. Nadine Mcintyre (Colby) - 19:27.13 

11. Linda Filipova (Cowley) - 19:28.41 

12. Madison Busch (Butler) - 19:40.02 

13. Amanda Kotambe (Butler) - 19:42.81 

15. Ellie Callaway (Butler) - 19:47.30