In the summer of 2021, Wichita State's Clayton Duchatschek considered himself ready to run for a fifth and final season and then attend chiropractic school and start his adult life.
A few months later, the good vibes around the cross country team changed his mind. A year later, he is back for a sixth season – at age 23 and noticing the generation gap with his young teammates – and leading Shocker cross country into Friday's American Athletic Conference Championships in Tulsa.
"I've been working at this running thing for 10 years," he said. "It would be kind of dumb for me to not use an extra opportunity to get better.