By Steve Carpenter
Hutchinson CC Sports Information Director

Over his first five seasons, Justin Riggs has continued to raise the bar for his Hutchinson Community College men's cross country team.

Over the past two seasons, that bar has been at his highest point in program history with a pair of seventh-place finishes, an individual national champion and three Top 5 individual finishes.

Then came 2020 … the Coronavius Pandemic has made major changes to everything from competition schedules right down to the wearing of masks and staying away from people or commonly referred to now as social distancing.

Through it all, the Blue Dragon Cross Country teams will be in competition this fall and it begins on Friday night at Fun Valley with the fifth-annual Terry Masterson Twilight Classic.

As for where the Blue Dragon bar ends up at the end of the 2020 season, that may not be the absolute evaluating factor for Riggs like it has in past seasons.

"As a competitor, it's very important," Riggs said of competing for championships. "I like to win. I'm a competitive person. This year, though, there is a little perspective from all this.

"It does feel good to get back after being locked up for so many months and not being able to do this. The athletes are happy to be back. Having some gratitude for being able to do this is top priority, but we still want to do well."

The 2020 Blue Dragon men will have a much different look about them. That's primarily because of dynamic duo of Andrew Kibet (Arkansas) and Sylvestre Kibarar (North Dakota) have moved onto four-year programs.

Still, four runners return from a league and region runner-up and seventh-place NJCAA National Championship team that was ranked as high as No. 5 last season.

Headlining that group of sophomores is Teagan Flanagan, who had his breakthrough meet at Fort Hays State last season and hasn't slowed down yet.

"We got extremely lucky," said Flanagan about cross country being able to compete this fall while the other Blue Dragon fall and winter sports were moved to second semester because of the pandemic. "We didn't know we were going to be able to come back and run, so we are making the best of it."

Flanagan (Kingman) was an all-conference and all-region runner as a freshman last season and placed 81st at the NJCAA Championships. After two so-so performances in his first two meets as a freshman, Flanagan finished ninth at the Fort Hays State Tiger Open with a time of 25:31.9 second, the 18th-fastest 8,000-meter time in Blue Dragon history.

"The development of our sophomores have been impressive," Riggs said. "Teagan has come a long way."

Also back for the Blue Dragons in 2020 are sophomores Matthew Schrag, Andrew Holt and Jacob McElhanon.

Schrag (Hutchinson) has been impressive in preseason workouts after a freshman season where his best 8K time was 27:18.4. McElhanon (Midlothian, Texas) ran is fastest time as a freshman at nationals, running 27:00.87 to finish 96th. Holt (Lago Vista, Texas) ran in just one race last season.

"Matthew has also come a long way from his high school career at Hutch High. He's going to be counted on to play a big role. We have some good sophomore leadership. Each of the kids have different strengths."

The three Blue Dragon freshmen are all in-state runners … Jareth Carrasco (Johnson City), Cameron Delaney (Osborne) and Aaron Geissinger (Abilene),

"Cameron Delaney was a state cross country placer," Riggs said. "He has a lot of growing to do, but really has of potential as a college runner."

Last season, the Blue Dragons finished second at the Masterson Twilight last season.