Cloud County Athletics
LAWRENCE - Highlighted by a school-record performance from freshman Vimbayi Maisvorewa in the 400-meter dash, the Cloud County Community College women's and men's track and field team would account for four event victories and 21 top-eight finishes competing at the 2022 University of Kansas Rock Chalk Classic at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kansas on Saturday.
No team scores were kept for the meet, which featured primarily NCAA Division I and II schools. Also competing in the meet were a limited number of NAIA programs from the state of Kansas as Cloud County would serve as the lone two-year school represented at the meet.
Maisvorewa's 400-meter performance would come in a record time of 53.66 seconds to best her previous record of 53.68 seconds set earlier this year at the KT Woodman Classic at the beginning of April. The time would win the event among a 25-runner field as Maisvorewa would also go on to run the third leg of the women's 4x400 meter relay team of Leonie Beu, Passion Crews, Maisvorewa and Isila Apkup posted a time of 3:45.54 to take third.
The CCCC women would go on to post three additional top-eight finishes with Miracle Thompson taking fourth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.20 seconds while Pamela Milano would take sixth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:18.96. Adding an eighth-place finish in the field events would be sophomore Faithlyn Irving in the triple jump after recording a mark of 11.22 meters (36 ft. - 9.75 in.).
On the men's side, sophomore Ephraim Lerkin would account for the lone new National Qualifying Mark recorded by the T-Birds on Saturday after running a time of 54.85 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles to take fifth. Elias Rivera would also run in the 400-meter hurdles for Cloud County, taking eighth with a time of 55.70 seconds in his first of two events as the Millville, New Jersey native would also take part in the 4x100 meter relay alongside Alphonse Igish, Narindra Rafidimalala, and Freider Fornasari to combine for a fifth-place time of 41.75 seconds.
In the 4x400 meter relay, CCCC would account for three of the top-six times posted which included an event win from Shadrick Tansi, Emmanuel Wanga, Igish, and Jonathan Dende with a time of 3:14.29. Coming in second in the event would be the team of Daniel Siaffa, Timothy Nyinguan, Hassan Abidi, and Rivera who posted a time of 3:16.75. The final relay team for the T-Birds in the event would be Quwayne Reid, Andrew Betton, Cejay Morrison, and Deandre Elliot to post a time of 3:22.50 which would be good for a sixth-place finish.
Accounting for the other two event victories by the CCCC men would be Fornasari in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.53 seconds along with Wanga in the 400 meters (48.94 seconds). The T-Birds would also see Abidi take second in the 400 meters with a time of 49.37 seconds while Siaffa would take fourth (49.79 seconds) and Nyinguan would take fifth (49.90 seconds). Other top marks from Cloud County in track events would include a third-place finish in the 5,000 meters from Kidus Misgina (14:36.15) while Elmer Sotelo (3,000-meter steeplechase - 10:05.59) and Reid (800 meters - 1:58.41) would both take eighth place in their respective events.
Over in the field events, freshman Ben Okraska would highlight the top finish for Cloud County in the pole vault by clearing 4.52 meters (14 ft. - 10 in.) to take third place in the event. Current NJCAA leader in the hammer throw Mohamed Ahmed would also add a third-place finish for CCCC by recording a mark of 61.61 meters (202 ft. - 1 in.) in what would be his only event of the day.
What's next?
Postseason action officially gets underway for Cloud County on Thursday when the T-Birds head west to Garden City to open the 2022 NJCAA Region VI/Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Championships. Both the T-Bird men and women will be going for the 2022 indoor and outdoor championship sweep after claiming the 2022 NJCAA Region VI Indoor Championships back in February as the CCCC women will be going for a fourth-straight Region VI Track title dating back to the 2021 Region VI Indoor Championships. The men meanwhile will look to reclaim the top spot on the podium in the outdoor season after a second-place finish to Barton Community College to snap a streak of four-straight Region VI Championships as the Cloud County men have won five of the past six championships between the indoor and outdoor championships.