Cloud County Athletics
PITTSBURG - Going 40 years between their first two NJCAA Region VI Indoor Track and Field Titles, the Cloud County Community College women's track and field team would not wait nearly as long to bring home their third title in program history by waiting for a mere 364 days to raise the trophy yet again inside the Robert W. Plaster Center on the campus of Pittsburg State University on Sunday.
Going over the 200-point mark after scoring 183 points in last year's Region VI Indoor Track Title run, the T-Birds would have little competition standing in the way of a second-consecutive title as Barton would be the only other team to crack the 100-point mark and finish a full 60 points back of CCCC with 143 points. The next closest team would be Fort Scott in third with 85 total points while Cowley (67 points) and Hutchinson (53 points) would finish fourth and fifth, respectively.
Averaging over 11 points per event in the 14 events that were contested on Sunday, Cloud County would add five more Region VI Indoor Track and Field Champions to go along with their three event titles on Saturday. In addition to the five event titles Sunday, the T-Birds would net three more national qualifying times on the track.
Starting the day off with a Region VI Championship would be freshman Miracle Thompson with a season-best and personal-record performance of 8.57 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles before going on to score another eight points in the 60-meter dash finals with a time of 7.63 seconds. The 600 meters would result in a Region VI Indoor title for Pamela Milano after posting a time of 1:33.34 as the sophomore would also win a Region VI title in the 800 meters (2:23.74). Freshman Vimbayi Maisvorewa (54.65) and Melody Ochana (5:17.28) would account for the remaining two NJCAA Region VI Indoor Titles by winning the 400 meters and mile run by beating out over 20 runners in each race.
Ochana would go on to add a third-place finish in the 3,000 meters while qualifying for the 2022 NJCAA Indoor National Championships with a time of 10:44.09 while Ludjenie Mondesir would net a runner-up finish in the 1,000 meters (3:08.21) and a fourth-place finish in the mile run (5:28.08). Also earning a top-eight finish in both the mile run and 3,000 meters would be Lucy Ndungu by posting times of 10:54.08 (3,000 meters, fifth) and 5:31.09 (mile run, sixth).
Cloud County would also score points on the track from Sicely Jackson in the 600 meters (third, 1:39.15) and Isila Apkup in both the 60 meters (seventh, 7.78 seconds), 200 meters (seventh, 25.23 seconds), and 400 meters (57.61 seconds). Leonie Beu would also net top-eight finishes in multiple events, finishing second in the 200 meters (24.65 seconds) and third in the 400 meters (56.38 seconds). Abigail Fisher (2:26.57) and Passion Crews (2:27.93) would join Milano in the 800 meters for a one-two-three CCCC finish as Fisher would also earn a fifth-place finish in the 1,000 meters (3:17.74) while Sicely Jackson would post a national qualifying time of 1:39.15 in the 600 meters to take third.
The T-Birds would also manage to score in each of the three field events that were contested on Sunday as sophomore Hollie Stewart (shot put) would record a new personal best of 12.83 meters (42 ft. - 1.25 in.) for a third-place finish while Faithlyn Irving would take fifth in the triple jump (11.14 meters, 36 ft. - 6.75 in.) and sixth in the high jump (1.50 meters, 4 ft. - 11 in.) Mercera would be able to clear 1.60 meters (5 ft. - 3 in.) in the high jump which would net the native of Curacao a third-place finish among the 14-athlete field.
What's next?
After finishing just 16 points of a team national title, CCCC is once again expected to contend for a national championship at the 2022 NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships which is set to take place March 4 and 5 at the Plaster Center in Pittsburg. Through the completion of the Region VI Championships, Cloud County has posted 27 national qualifying times on the track and six marks in field events that have qualified for the National Championship meet. The T-Birds also have two athletes currently ranked in the top-16 in the pentathlon, which only takes the top-16 athletes for the event as seven times/marks rank inside the top-five of the NJCAA this season with 17 times and marks ranking inside the top-10.