By Steve Carpenter
Hutchinson CC Sports Information Director

Teagan Flanagan is quick to point out that he, Andrew Kibet and Sylvestre Kibarar are good, good friends.

Flanagan also mentions that he is extremely competitive.

So when the current Hutchinson Community College cross country sophomore beat Kibet and Kibarar's Blue Dragon Time Trial records last Saturday, Flanagan made a quick phone call to Kibarar.

"Sylvestre kept saying that I didn't run the full race and he was giving me a hard time," Flanagan said with a chuckle.

"Teagan went right to the van after he got finished and called Sylvestre," Riggs recalled. "There was some fun trash talking going on, but they are all friends. It was a fun little phone call. Both Sylvestre and Andrew were really excited for him."

Now with the student out-doing his mentors – for at least one race – Flanagan takes the lessons learned from his former teammates and assumes the role of leader of the 2020 Blue Dragon Men's Cross Country Team. The Blue Dragons open their regular season with the Terry Masterson Twilight Classic on September 4 at Fun Valley.

The Blue Dragon Time Trial is an annual pre-season evaluation run for the Hutchinson Cross Country teams. The 3-mile course is specifically designed to test runners over several different terrains, elevations and surfaces and gives Riggs a true evaluation of each runner heading into the season.

Kibet's best Time Trial time was 15 minutes, 43 seconds and Kibarar's was 15:31.

Flanagan on Saturday posted a stellar time of 15 minutes, 23 seconds.

"Those two guys are my best friends and they taught me to run tough," Flanagan said. "They showed me the correct way to run and to be smart. You couldn't ask for two better guys to train with."

As a freshman, Flanagan, Kibet and Kibarar were teammates on Hutchinson's NJCAA seventh-place and Region VI Runner-up men's team. In 2019. Flanagan, who is a graduate of Kingman High School, learned a lot from Kibet and Kibarar, the Blue Dragons' dynamic Kenyan duo from 2018 and 2019.

Kibet (now at Arkansas) was an individual NJCAA champion and a two-time All-American after a fourth-place finish at nationals last year. Kibet also is tied for the all-time Blue Dragon 8,000-meter time in program history at 24:01. Kibarar (now at North Dakota) was 21st nationally as a freshman in 2019 and finished fifth to earn first-team All-America honors last season. Kibarar has the sixth-fastest 8K time in Blue Dragon history at 24:32.2.

Flanagan's freshman season at HutchCC was just his third as a competitive runner.

His first three meets of 2019 were average – Flanagan finished ninth at the Masterson Twilight and ran 26:14 in his first collegiate 8K race at Missouri Southern. Two races later, Flanagan had his breakout moment.

With the Blue Dragons running the Fort Hays State Tiger Invitational without Kibet, who was held out of the race because of injury, Flanagan stepped up and posted the 18th-fastest 8K time in Blue Dragon history in a sixth-place finish at FHSU. Flanagan's time was 25:31.9.

Flanagan went on to earn All-Region VI and All-Jayhawk West honors with a 10th-place showing at the 2019 Region VI Championships, posting a time of 26:08.06. Flanagan then finished 81st at the NJCAA Championships with a time of 21:45

"It all started that week," Flanagan said about the FHSU meet. "We had an extremely difficult workout on the Tuesday (before FHSU). "My fitness was up. I ran hard and gave it my all (at FHSU). Since I started running, I just dig in and I've reached my goals."

"That was a break-through race for Teagan," Riggs said. "It was a confidence booster for him and it set him up moving forward. That race showed him what he is capable of and it's been a motivating factor for him since."

Flanagan played football in his first two years at Kingman High School. I singular moment from his sophomore track and field season got Flanagan to thinking about going a different route athletically.

"I put together a 2-mile time that I didn't know I could run and thought maybe I'm in the wrong sport," he said. "So I joined Cross Country my junior year."

Over two seasons with the Kingman cross country team, Flanagan won a pair of conference and regional championships, while finishing second in the Kansas Class 3A State Championships as a junior and third as a senior.

"He's a really solid runner," Riggs said. "He is a good success story of somebody local who came here and had success. I'm very proud of him."

Flanagan's spring season at HutchCC was cut short because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Until last Saturday's time trial, the last competitive event Flanagan ran was the Region VI Indoor 3,000 meters, where he finished fifth with a time of 9:00.35, the eighth-fastest time in Blue Dragon history.

With no outdoor season or summer runs to compete in, Flanagan turned to a unique training regimen to put himself in shape for 2020. Flanagan spent three months in Colorado, running at altitudes from 6,400 to 8,400 feet.

Because of that, Riggs said Flanagan is in the best shape of his life.

"I took about a month off from training, he said. "Running at altitude really got me in good shape for now. It was a great experience."