T-Bird Times

Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: courtesy of Marcia Pounds

Controversy surrounded the Cloud County men's cross country team as they left Emporia last Friday. They went into Emporia State looking to place their top three runners in the top five of the 8k race, however, this was not the case.

Freshman Julius Kiptoo Bor and sophomore Johnny Shuping were disqualified from the race for running off course on the wrong path. Kiptoo Bor and Shuping were leading the race at the time and were ahead of the pack by about 300 to 400 yards.

"They were way ahead of the whole pack by about 300-400 yards, and it has happened at Emporia quite a bit over the last few years. Usually our top runners are leading against that group of people and they are not told or they get sent the wrong way," Coach Harry Kitchener said. "Kellyn
Johnson, two years ago, didn't get sent right and got disqualified."

Kiptoo Bor and Shuping had been directed to run the wrong path by girls with red and white flags.

"There were two lines that parted in two different directions. They were supposed to go right, but they went left. The guy was supposed to be standing right there and he was there and then he left and went over to talk to some girls that had these red and white flags. When our guys came up there, the girls said 'this way, this way' so our guys went that way," Kitchener said. "Then he came back over there and stood and sent the Emporia kid the right way with Julius Kiptum. So, we don't know if it was set up on purpose, but it looked awful fishy."

As a result of the disqualifications, Kitchener pulled his back two runners from the race, forcing Cloud County to not receive a team score for this meet.

The Thunderbirds only had three runners finish the race. Kiptum wound up placing second behind Emporia State's Skyler Delmott. Kiptum finished with a time of 25:42.
Other finishers were sophomore Michael Loring, 60th, 29:45 and freshman Jovan
McClellan, 65th, 29:57.

"We shoot for under 30 minutes to get to a National meet. Each school has their own standards as to what they can take to the National meet. We have a five-man team, but we probably won't be able to run all the internationals," Coach Kitchener said.

Their next race is the Chillipepper Invitational at Fayetteville, Ark., October 13.

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