LEVELLAND, Texas - A strong close to the 2021 season would see the Cloud County Community College men's and women's track and field teams combine to earn five more national runner-up finishes leading to a third-place team finish on the men's side and a sixth-place team finish for the women at the 2021 NJCAA Outdoor National Championships at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas on Thursday.
The third-place finish for the men comes following a tight race up until the very final event of the three-day meet as South Plains and Barton would share the 2021 men's National Title with 101 points while CCCC scored 96. Over on the women's side, Cloud County would enter the day just seven points out of first with a total 41 points but manage to come up with only 31 points on the final day that saw 13 of the 22 total events crown National Champs as host South Plains (110.33 points) would edge out New Mexico Junior College (108 points) for the national title. Iowa Central (81 points), Iowa Western (78 points), and Barton (76 points) would round out the top five, with the T-Birds coming in just four points back of the Cougars.
In total, the women would account for two national runner-up finishes and the men with three on Thursday as the women would get a toss of 51.47 meters (168 ft. - 10 in.) in the discus from Marie Forbes to start the day with a national runner-up before book-ending the day with a national runner-up finish in the 4x400 meter relay (Leonie Beu, Isila Apkup, Passion Crews, and Tashira Edwards - 3:43.98) by just .53 seconds. The T-Bird women would also get a fourth-place finish from Pamela Milano in the 800 meters (2:15.09) and Beu in the 400 meters (54.23) as well as a sixth-place finish from Edwards in the 400-meter hurdles (1:04.05). All marks put up by Cloud County on the women's side Thursday would lead to points scored in the team race as the remaining two recorded marks would be eighth-place finishes from Faithlyn Irving in the triple jump (11.56 meters, 37 ft. - 11.25 in.) and Maycee Callihan in the discus (41.22 meters, 135 ft. - 3 in.).
Adding 39 points to their final total in the last day of action, Cloud County would get 24 of their points on the national runner-up finishes coming from Caden Bach in the javelin (56.39 meters, 185 ft. - 0 in.), Daniel Cope in the discus (56.56 meters, 185 ft. - 7 in.), and Timothy Nyinguan in the triple jump (15.41 meters, 50 ft. - 6.75 in.). Fourth-place finishes woudl come from Courtney Lawrence in the discus (51.56 meters, 169 ft. - 2 in.) and Ephraim Lerkin in the 400 meter hurdles (52.76) while Awet Beraki (15:18.83) and Saba Khvichava (15:34.36) added a sixth and eighth-place finish in the 1,500 meters.
Over the course of the three-day championships, Cloud County would total four National Champions, nine national runner-up finishes, and 16 different finishes between third and eighth. The top-six finishes by both teams give CCCC three top-three team finishes and one top-six finish at the 2021 National Championship meets (2021 Indoor - women and men both third, 2021 Outdoor - men third, women sixth) in addition to three NJCAA Region VI Titles (women - both indoor and outdoor, men - indoor). The combined total of 168 points between the two teams is the highest combined total in program history for Cloud County at a national championship meet.
May 14, 2021
T-Bird men 3rd, women 6th at NJCAA Outdoor National Championships
Posted May 14, 2021 2:36 AM