Former Trojans gather to honor Kirk Hunter
NJCAA Hall of Fame inductee coached track and cross country at CCC from 1988-2000
Nearly 60 Colby Community College track and cross country alumni and their families gathered Saturday night to honor former Trojans coach Kirk Hunter and celebrate his 2018 induction into the NJCAA Hall of Fame.
The event, hosted by the CCC Endowment Foundation, began Saturday afternoon with a campus tour. That evening dinner was at the City Limits Convention Center.
Hunter coached at Colby from 1988-2000. He was the men's Region VI Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1995. He won the same honor on the women's side four times during his tenure while winning a national championship in 1999 and national runners-up in 2000. In 2014, he was inducted into the CCC Hall of Fame.
After his time at CCC, Hunter was the head cross country and track and field coach at Butler Community College. In 2010, he entered his current post as Wichita State University's head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach.
In 22 years at the NJCAA level, Hunter coached 274 athletes to 674 All-American honors and 45 All-American honorable mentions. He coached 50 individual national champions and 79 national runner-up finishers. Six times his teams were crowned as national champions, and he led seven teams to second-place finishes.