HCC Sports Information

Sophomore Maggie Lambert will close out a very good cross country career at Hutchinson Community College on Saturday at the NJCAA Division I Championships in Fort Dodge Iowa.

Lambert and the No. 18-ranked Blue Dragon women will run at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course at Noon on Saturday. One hour before that, the Blue Dragon men – receiving votes in the final poll before nationals – will run at 11 a.m.

NJCAATV will videostream both races beginning at 11 a.m.

Heading into her final cross country race as a Blue Dragon, Lambert achieved a lot of success:

+ She owns the second-fastest 5K time in Blue Dragon Women's Cross Country history – 19:06.06 at the Missouri Southern Stampede on September 16.
+ She has broken 20 minutes five times in her career.
+ She is a two-time all-region and two-time all-conference runner.
+ Helped keep the 2017 Blue Dragon women in the national rankings all season long – which hasn't been done since 2001 – with a high of No. 12 in the nation.

Now Lambert would like to end an All-American drought for the Blue Dragons, who haven't had an All-American in women's cross country since Ruth Limo, Pam Shelite and Lisa Volk earned All-America status in 2001.

Last season, Lambert finished 56th at the 2016 NJCAA Championships in El Dorado with a time of 19:43.35.

This season, the Blue Dragon women have been led by Lambert and freshmen Aileen Gomez, Sarah Patteson and Macy Linenberger.

The Hutchinson women finished fifth at Region VI and third in the Jayhawk West two weeks ago on Garden City.

The Blue Dragon men have been ranked as high as No. 22 this season in the NJCAA Division I rankings and are currently in the receiving votes list.

This has been a freshman-led team with Connor Kaufman and Jared Stark leading the way.

Hutchinson finished sixth at the Region VI championships.

The Blue Dragons would like to crack the Top 20 this season, which hasn't been done since a 19th-place finish in 2014. The last Blue Dragon men's All-American was Ross Wilden in 2005.