Johnson County Community College
Press Release

College Information and Publications
913-469-8500
Julie Haas, Associate Vice President, Marketing Communications, ext. 3120
Peggy Graham, Writer, ext. 3425
Tyler Cundith, Sports Information Director, ext. 3122

11/19/08
Story by Tyler Cundith

Largest field signed up for NJCAA Half Marathon

OVERLAND PARK, KS -- Johnson County Community College and Shawnee Mission Park are proud to welcome the 2008 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Half Marathon Championships to the area, Saturday, Nov. 22. The championship will bring 185 runners representing 27 teams to compete on the 13.1 mile course that runs through the city streets and trails at Shawnee Mission Park, Shawnee and Lenexa, Kan., as well as on the Mill Creek Streamway Park’s Gary L. Haller Trail between miles 7.5 and 3.5.   The course will be run on a combination of roads and asphalt trails starting and finishing at the Shawnee Mission Park’s The Theatre in the Park, 7710 Renner Road, Shawnee.  The course is a mixture of hills and flat areas. The women’s race will start at 8 a.m., followed by the men’s race at 8:15 a.m.

This year’s field is the largest in the six-year history of the NJCAA Half Marathon Championships. The JCCC women’s team has won three of the previous five titles (2003, 2005, 2006), and finished runner-up twice. The men posted three straight runner-up finishes from 2004-06.

This year’s women’s race features three of the top 15 finishers from last year’s championship, and nine of the top 25 finishers from this year’s NJCAA Cross Country Championship earlier this month in Spartanburg, S.C. On the men’s side, two runners who finished among the top 20 in the half marathon are back, and seven of the top 25 in this year’s men’s cross country championship are in the field.

The top returning female from last year’s race is Paola Rodriguez of El Paso (Texas) Community College. Rodriguez placed 12th with a time of 1:31:56. She recently posted a 17th place finish at cross country nationals.

The other two returnees are JCCC sophomores Temer Yimer of Park Hill South and Francis Gipson of Shawnee Mission North. Yimer placed 13th in the half marathon a year ago with a time of 1:32:22. She recently earned NJCAA All-American and Coaches All-American with her 13th place finish at the cross country championship. Gipson placed 15th in the half marathon as a freshman, and is coming off a 16th place effort at cross country nationals, which earned her Coaches All-American.

Other runners to watch are Tonya Nero of Colby Community College (5th at CC Nationals); Gladys Chumba of South Plains College (9th at CC Nationals); Lilian Lagar of Rend Lake College (12th at CC Nationals) Viviana Contreras of El Paso (14th at CC Nationals);  Holly Tjaden of Iowa Central Community College (23rd at CC Nationals); Sarah Stark of JCCC (25th at CC Nationals) and Ebby Jeptoo of Gillette College (26th at CC Nationals).

The top returning male runners are Kyle Smith of Oakland (Mich.) Community College, and Chris Mason of SUNY-Delhi (N.Y.). Smith placed seventh last year with a time of 1:13:33. He just missed All-America honors by two places. Mason raced to a 17th place finish with a time of 1:15:00.

Other top runners in the field include three from South Plains College (Texas), who finished runner-up in the team competition at cross county nationals. Leading the Texans are Tallam Kipruto (10th at CC Nationals), Fred Samoei (14th at CC Nationals) and Mitchell Driver (25th at CC Nationals). Also running are Robert Menjo of El Paso Community College (8th at CC Nationals); Joshua Sawe of Iowa Central Community College (15th at CC Nationals) and Johnny Purvis of Cowley College (20th at CC Nationals).