PITTSBURG -- The Cloud County Community College track and field teams made their presence known on day two of the fifth annual Pittsburg State Unviersity Gorilla Classic as the T-Birds would add five national qualifying marks and see another school-record fall inside the Plaster Center in Pittsburg on Saturday.
The five new national qualifying marks would come from four different CCCC athletes as the T-Bird men would four top-10 finishes as part of the marks. Richard Newman would add his second national qualifying mark of the season by running a time of 6.87 in the 60 meters while Courtney Lawrence continued to break his own school-record in the shot put by putting up a mark of 17.96 meters (58 ft. - 11.25 in.). Joining the national qualifier club for the T-Birds would be Goga Maglakelidze in the triple jump (14.44 meters, 47 ft. - 8.75 in.) and Stephen Holland in the 400 meters (49.03) while Habtamu Geta posted national qualifying times of 1:57.67 in the 800 meters and 8:44.52 in the 3,000 meters. Santino Kenyi would run a season-best time in the 800 meters (1:53.98) to take fourth overall in the event while the 4x400 meter relay team (Holland, Andres Hernandez, Davit Lukava, and Wayde Roman) lowered their season-best time to 3:16.31 to take sixth out of 41 relay teams.
The Cloud County women would be limited in their Saturday action but have athletes competing nonetheless as Alyia Hatton would earn the best finish for the women with an eighth-place finsih in the 60 hurdles (8.89 in the preliminaries and 8.97 in the finals). Marie Forbes would compete in the shot put (11.98 meters, 39 ft. - 3.75 in.) and Kya Johnson in the 800 meters (2:25.17) with Johnson just missing out on a national qualifying time to finish out the T-Bird women's competitors.
What's next?
The NJCAA Region VI Indoor Championships will see the T-Birds make a return trip to the Plaster Center to compete in the two-day meet Feb. 21 and 22. Cloud County is looking to repeat as Indoor Champions on the men's side while the women will look to contend with Barton for an indoor title after finishing as 2019 region runner-up.
--cloudtbirds.com--