(Garden City, Kansas) - Waubonsee Community College's Men's Cross Country runners finished 26th out of 38 schools competing at the NJCAA Division I National Championship Meet. The Chiefs were in position to place in the top-20 before they fell off the pace on the latter half of the 8K course laid out at Buffalo Dunes Golf Course. Waubonsee ended up with a team score of 682. Despite not having a top-10 finisher, Central Arizona relied on their team's consistent pace to win the team title with 100 points. The crown is the program's eighth overall national championship and second in three years. Iowa Central Community College was second with 118 points, marking the sixth straight year the two schools have either finished first or second with both claiming three titles. 

Waubonsee was led by Jordan VanBarriger who finished 60th overall traversing the course in a time of 28:03. Brad Osuch crossed the finish line in 107th place, followed by Stephen Merriweather who was 129th. Tomas Dominguez came in 190th for the Chiefs and Ryan Moshinsky was 196th to account for Waubonsee's scoring. C.J. Girolamo placed 221st and Jacob Fehrenbacher was 233rd to round out the Chiefs' participants among the 289 runners. Five different runners held leads across six splits before Hutchinson (KS) Community College's Andrew Kibet pulled away to claim the school's first-ever individual national championship with a time of 25:25. Colby (KS) Community College's Nehemiah Too was seven seconds behind Kibet, and Iowa Central's Ezekiel Kipchirchir came in third individually five seconds later.

Waubonsee also had three women's runners qualify to compete in the National Meet hosted by Garden City Community College. Daphne Kolody led the Chiefs' trio with a 108th place finish, covering the 5K course in a time of 21:56. Gaby Juarez placed 152nd and Maira Weitkamp was 225th among the 294 runners who competed. El Paso (TX) Community College's Everlyn Kemboi won the women's individual title with a time of 18:17, crossing the line 26 seconds ahead of second place finisher Gladys Jemaiyo from South Plains (TX) College. Iowa Central took home the 2018 DI Women's Cross Country National Championship with a score of 45 points, well ahead of second place El Paso (TX) Community College's tally of 70 points. The College of Southern Idaho was third with 100 points. Region IV Champion Sauk Valley Community College finished 27th out of 38 teams with a team total of 659.