KOGO WINS NATIONAL TITLE; DRAGONS ARE NJCAA CROSS COUNTRY RUNNER-UP
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
FORT DODGE, Iowa – For the past two seasons the trio of Cornelius Kogo, Titus Kiprotich and Dennis Cheriuyot have taken the Hutchinson Community College men's cross country team to new heights.
On a snowy Saturday at Lakeside Golf Course, that trio once again lifted the Blue Dragons to a level never achieved.
The 2025 Blue Dragons earned their best finish in NJCAA National Cross Country Championship history, finishing as the national runner-up. Last season, the Blue Dragons tied the best finish in team history of third place.
Within that team accomplishment, Kogo became the second Blue Dragon men's runner to win an individual national championship. Kiprotich was the national runner-up and Cheruiyot was seventh to lead the Blue Dragons.
Hutchinson was edged by Iowa Central for the team national championship 58-69. Region 6 rival Butler was third with 144 points.
The 11-points that separated the Blue Dragons and Tritons were closer than the final standings appeared.
Iowa Central had a two-point lead over Hutchinson at the 5K split, but at the 6K split, the Blue Dragons led by three points. That Blue Dragon lead grew to nine points at the 7K split. Iowa Central's No 4 and 5 runners made big moves in the final 1,000 meters despite Hutchinson's No. 4 and 5 runners Esteban Ortega and Farrin Mangelson running better splits in the final 1K than they did at the 6K and 7K splits.
When the race began at Noon Saturday, about one inch of snow was on the ground and there was moderate snow falling with a race-start temperature of 28 degrees.
The inclement weather didn't affect what became a 1-2 battle between Kogo and Kiprotich for the race lead.
At the 4K split, Kiprotich led Kogo by 11.3 seconds. Kogo then started to trim that deficit, cutting Kiprotich's lead to 8.8 seconds at the 5K split and 5.6 seconds at the 6K split. Within the 6K-to-7K segment, Kogo assumed the lead and went on to win the national championship by 8 full seconds over his teammate.
Kogo ran a national championship time of 24:54.7. He is the first Blue Dragon to win the NJCAA individual national championship since Andrew Kibet in 2018. Kogo earned NJCAA All-America honors after earning NJCAA Coaches Association honors in 2024 after placing 21st.
Kogo won his third career individual race, all three coming in his sophomore season.
Kiprotich's second-place time was 25:02.7. He became the second Blue Dragon in team history to earn NJCAA All-America honors in back-to-back seasons after finishing ninth in 2024. This was Kiprotich's seventh career Top-5 finish.
Cheruiyot became the third Blue Dragon to earn back-to-back NJCAA All-America honors. He placed 10th as a freshman in 2024. Cheruiyot ran a time of 25:30.6. Cheruiyot was in 11th place at the 7K split and jumped four spots with the third-best final split of any runner in the field of 3:12.8.
Kogo, Kiprotich and Cheruiyot are the first Blue Dragon runners to earn All-America honors in the same national championship in team history. Three different times the Blue Dragons had two All-Americans in 1998, 2018 and 2024.
Ortega placed 27th overall with a time of 26:23.9 and Mangelson was 32nd with a time of 26:30.3.
Freshman Esteban Oses Campos placed 147th with a time of 25:10.9. Freshman Max Ryan was 194th with a time of 31:25.2.
