Hutchinson CC Sports Information
FORT DODGE, Iowa – All season long, Teagan Flanagan has run with a "Go Big or Go Home" mentality.
At Saturday's NJCAA Division I Men's National Cross Country Championships, the Hutchinson Community College sophomore did just that at the Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
Flanagan went big and he came home as a first-team NJCAA All-American.
Flanagan finished fifth individually to become the 17th Blue Dragon NJCAA All-American in program history.
"I gave myself a chance," Flanagan said.
Flanagan's performance helped the Blue Dragon men finish fifth as a team, which matches the national ranking Hutchinson entered the championships with.
Running with his usual aggressive style in staying up with the lead pack, Flanagan had to battle another competitor – Mother Nature. The temperature at the start of the race was 41 degrees with 20+ degree wind chills as a strong and gusty north wind made things tough on the field.
"I thought he ran really smart," Blue Dragon head coach Justin Riggs said. "I went out and held back a little on the lead pack and slowly reeled them in. I think that helped him later in the race to stay in the Top 5. The kid works really hard at this and I'm happy for him."
Flanagan was neck-and-neck with leader and eventual winner Kelvin Bungei of Iowa Central at the 3-mile mark. At that point, the lead pack of five runners were all within 2 seconds of each other. From that point, Bungei pulled away and Flanagan dueled with Region VI rivals Habtamu Geta and Awet Baraki of Cloud County.
Geta wound up third and Ranger's Jeremias Serrano had a huge late kick to finish fourth, but Flanagan finished fifth, nearly 13 full seconds ahead of Baraki, the Region VI Individual champion.
"It wasn't the same pace as regionals. There were a lot of surges because of the conditions," Flanagan said. "We would slow down and then speed up. The conditions were tough. When we were going into the wind, I would stay being the pack. The wild also made it hard to breathe at times."
Flanagan posted a time of 25:23.93, the 10th-fastest time by a Blue Dragon in a national championship race.
Flanagan is the 10th NJCAA first-team All-American in program history.
With Flanagan's performance on Saturday, the Blue Dragons made a bit of history by having runners earn NJCAA All-America honors in three-straight seasons – Andrew Kibet in 2018 and Kibet and Sylvestre Kibarar in 2019. Having All-Americans in three-straight seasons had never been accomplished in program history.
Iowa Central won the men's team title with 85 points. Southern Idaho was second with 91 and Iowa Western was third with 95. Cloud County placed fourth with 122 points, followed by the Blue Dragons with 134.
This was Hutchinson's first Top 5 performance since 1998 and sixth Top 5 performance in team history. The Blue Dragons have three-straight Top 10 finishes with seventh-place showings in 2018 and 2019.
"It's been a crazy year. I didn't know what we were getting into with Covid going on," Riggs said. "I'm really proud them. We don't have a lot of depth so there isn't a member of the team that's been able to slack off. It put some pressure on them, but competition breeds success. They all had pressure to perform and we got a lot out of all the runners."
The Blue Dragons had three runners place in the Top 25 on Saturday.
Sophomore Jacob Mcelhanon finished 20th overall with a time of 26:26.99. Freshman Cameron Delaney posted a PR with a time of 26:34.62 to finish 23rd.
Mcelhanon and Delaney earned Coaches All-American honors for their Top 25 finishes.
"I thought we would get that from Jacob and I'm ecstatic seeing Cameron up there, too," Riggs said. "Cameron came on late in the race. He paced himself really smart. I'm really happy for both of them."
Sophomore Andrew Holt placed 37th overall with a time of 27:14.08. Sophomore Matthew Schrag was 54th in a time of 27:50.17
Freshman Aaron Geissinger placed 80th in a time of 28:34.40. Freshman Jareth Carrasco was 95th in a time of 28:56.95.
"We did what we were expected," Flanagan said. "Cameron and Jacob really stepped up and everyone on the team really tried their best. It was a good day."