The Dodge City community came together over the holiday weekend to support Delia Montes, the college cross-country runner still in serious condition in the hospital suffering from exertional heat stroke.
A fundraiser was held at a local mall to help pay expenses for family members who are with her at a Wichita hospital. This is addition to a GoFundMe campaign that has, so far, raised $5,600.
Montes, 19, is a freshman at Dodge City Community College. She collapsed in a field west of campus near the Arkansas River on Aug. 7 during a training run.
It was 101 degrees with a heat index of 105, according to the National Weather Service. A heat advisory was in effect between 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm. Practice began at 1:30, the hottest part of the day.
The college insists the practice was held in safe conditions.
“I believe that was following the guidelines. And that's what we're here to do,” DCCC trustee chair Gary Harshberger told KCUR and The Midwest Newsroom at recent meeting. “Since that falls in their guidelines, they could have a meet in that day,” he said.
Harshberger is referring to the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference heat policy. The conference, along with most other athletic programs, uses something called a wet bulb globe thermometer — commonly called at WBGT reading — that measures air temperature, humidity, wind speed and solar radiation.
The conference policy says that there should be “NO outdoor workouts” with any WBGT over 90 degrees. DCCC said it uses an app from Perry Weather to monitor conditions, and the app alerts coaches and trainers if there is danger.
In response to a Kansas Open Records Request the school said it has no such record.
“Please be advised that we do not maintain records of the WBGT measurements,” the Freedom of Information Officer said in an email.
A second DCCC athlete was also sent to the hospital with heat issues. Little was known about her until the college fulfilled another open records request from KCUR and the Midwest Newsroom.
The second woman was a soccer player who collapsed during practice the day before Montes suffered a heat stroke. Security was called to a “medical emergency” at 2:00 pm, according to a report from a campus security officer. The temperature at that time was 100 degrees. The unidentified player was taken to a local hospital where she was treated and released.
Athletic Director Jacob Ripple said his programs are safe.
“We were within the guidelines set forth by our trainers that set forth everything for the conference,” he told KCUR and The Midwest Newsroom.
Joselin Villanueva, Delia’s cousin and the person spearheading the fundraising, said the college has kept her family in the dark.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation was called to investigate by the Ford County Sheriff's Office but found no criminal activity.
The Montes case is unusual because she is a small, cross-country runner. Most exertional heat stroke cases happen among big football linemen.
Since 2018, four football players have died at Kansas schools from heat stroke.
Braeden Bradforth, 19, died in 2018 at Garden City Community College, just 50 miles northwest of Dodge City. Another player died at Fort Scott Community College in 2022.
Ovet Gomez Regalado, a 15-year-old Shawnee Mission Northwest sophomore-to-be, died of heat stroke complications at a preseason workout last August.
Myzelle Law, 19, was a sophomore defensive lineman at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe. He died in August 2023 following a week in the hospital after his body temperature hit 108 degrees during a preseason workout.
