Hutchinson CC Sports Information
FORT DODGE, Iowa – Sophomore Maggie Lambert moved up one more historical chart on Saturday and helped the nationally ranked Hutchinson Community College women's cross country team to a Top 20 national finish on Saturday.
The No. 18 Blue Dragons finished exactly 18th at the NJCAA Division I National Cross Country Championships at Riverside Golf Course in Fort Dodge. This was the team's first Top 20 finish since 2014. The Blue Dragons finished with 521 team points and was the fifth-highest finishing Jayhawk Conference team in the field.
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As for Lambert, her final race as a Blue Dragon was a 52nd-place showing in a time of 19:35.0.
Lambert's time was the second fastest by a Blue Dragon's women's cross country runner at an NJCAA meet in team history, tying Cecilia Lane, who ran 19:35 in 2013. Lambert earlier this season ran the second-fastest 5K time in team history at Missouri Southern, a time of 19:06.
In comparison to last seasons' NJCAA national meet performance, Lambert improved four places with an 18 second improvement.
Lambert was the only Top 100 placer for the Blue Dragons on Saturday.
Freshman Sarah Patteson was the second Hutchinson runner to cross the finish line. She finished 106th with a time of 20:18.3.
Not far behind was freshman America Garcia, who closed a strong second-half of the season with a 109th- place finish in a season-best time of 20:20.0
Saw Ahmara also ran a season-best time for the Blue Dragons. Her time of 20:45.7 was 144th.
Macy Linenberger was 173rd in a time of 21:10.2 and Aileen Gomez was 195th in a time of 21:37.4.
Iowa Central won the team national championships in dominating fashion with 52 points. Runner-up Central Arizona scored 135 points.
Adva Cohen of Iowa Central was the individual champion with a time of 17:24.4.
Cowley was the top Jayhawk Conference team to finish. The Tigers were third. Allen, Colby and Butler also finished ahead of the Blue Dragons.