CONCORDIA - A pair of top-three multi-event performances has led to Cloud County Community College track and field athletes Andrew Betton and Vanessa Mercera being named Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference indoor track and field athletes of the week.
Both athletes would compete at the Wichita State University Herm Wilson Invitational in Wichita, Kansas this past weekend, with Betton competing in the heptathlon while Mercera competed in the pentathlon.Of the five events in the heptathlon, Mercera would finish second in the high jump (1.53 meters, 5 ft. - 0.25 in.) and long jump (5.16 meters, 16 ft. - 11.25 in.) while earning fifth-place finishes in the 60-meter hurdles (9.72 seconds) and 800 meters (2:34.27). Tallying a total of 3,105 points over the five events, Mercera would finish second to only Megan Mann of Oklahoma State University while holding the third-best performance in the NJCAA in the pentathlon this season.
Betton would score a total of 4,597 points after taking second in both the 60 meters (7.20 seconds) and high jump (1.94 meters, 6 ft. - 4.25 in.). Adding a fourth-place finish in the pole vault (3.85 meters, 12 ft. - 7.5 in.) and a fifth-place finish in the 1,000 meters (2:57.66), Betton would score at least 700 points in three of the seven events and finish just 139 points shy of his national championship performance in the event last spring. The total of 4,597 points currently ranks third in the NJCAA behind only Aries Scott of Iowa Central and Nelvin Appiah-Konadu of South Plains College.
Betton and Mercera each become the third Cloud County athlete from their respective teams to earn KJCCC Track and Field Athlete of the Week honors, with Mercera joining Vimbayi Maisvorewa and Tahisha Thompson while Betton joins Mohamed Ahmed and Emmanuel Wanga.