Cloud County Sports Information
WICHITA – Action spanning across three days would lead to six event wins and 15 top-eight finishes for the Cloud County Community College women's track and field team at the 2023 Friends University Open held at Adair-Austin Stadium in Wichita.
No team scores would be held for the event as teams NCAA Division I, II, the NAIA, and NJCAA come from six different surrounding states (South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma).
THURSDAY RECAP
With the multi-events leading things off on Thursday afternoon, the T-Birds would have sophomore Vanessa Mercera put herself out to a big lead in the heptathlon through four events with wins in the 100-meter hurdles (14.84 seconds), high jump (1.67 meters, 5 ft. – 5.75 in.), shot put (10.41 meters, 34 ft. – 1.75 in.), and 200 meters (25.01 seconds) give the Curacao native a big lead heading into the second day of action. Mercera would go on to also win the long jump (5.41 meters, 17 ft. – 9 in.) and 800 meters (2:30.08) portion of the heptathlon on Friday to go along with a fourth-place finish in the javelin (20.76 meters, 68 ft. – 1 in.) to finish the seven-events with a total of 4,792 points to win the event by 993 points for an NJCAA-leading total in the event.
FRIDAY RECAP
Action on Friday would also be limited for CCCC with just five athletes competing across two events that would lead to four top-eight finishes and an event win with Jessi Brummett earning a win in the javelin with a throw of 38.69 meters (126 ft. – 11 in.). Also competing for the T-Birds in the javelin would be Hailey Sharp who would finish eighth (29.14 meters, 95 ft. – 7 in.) for an eighth-place finish while Emmy Punches would take 12th following a throw of 27.97 meters (91 ft. – 9 in.). In the other event that featured Cloud County athletes on Friday, Mia Manley and Jasmine Sakaguchi would both post top-five finishes in the pole vault as Manley would clear 3.28 meters (10 ft. – 9.25 in.) for third while Sakaguchi cleared 3.13 meters (10 ft. – 3.25 in.) to take fifth.
SATURDAY RECAP
Three event wins on the track would highlight day three for CCCC as the 4x400 meter relay team of Mercera, Passion Crews, Miracle Thompson, and Vimbayi Maisvorewa running a time of 3:49.36 to win the final event of the evening after seeing Maisvorewa earn wins in both the 200 meters (24.35 seconds) and 400 meters (54.26 seconds) while Thompson would win the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.77 seconds. Cloud County would add a sixth-place finish from Melody Ochana in the 5,000 meters (19:11.83) in the track events.
Over in the field events on Saturday, freshman Shackala Henry would post a pair of top-eight finishes to lead the way as five top-eight finishes in total would come from four events. For Henry, a second-place finish in the high jump (1.67 meters, 5 ft. – 5.75 in.) would be followed by a sixth-place finish in the triple jump (11.18 meters, 36 ft. – 8.25 in.) while Tamara Thompson would take third in the discus (38.12 meters, 125 ft. – 1 in.) to edge out Tahisha Thompson who recorded a throw of 37.30 meters (122 ft. – 5 in.) to take fourth in the event. CCCC's lone other top-eight finish would come in the shot put from sophomore Mallory Callihan as the Agenda, Kansas native would take seventh with a throw of 11.90 meters (39 ft. – 0.5 in.).
What's next?
A return trip to Wichita for the second-straight weekend will see Cloud County compete in the 2023 KT Woodman Classic held at Wichita State University beginning on Friday, before concluding on Saturday. Action will begin at 6 p.m. on Friday evening with the shot put and javelin along with the distance carnival of events before starting back up at 11 a.m. on Saturday with a full day of action wrapping up around 6:45 p.m.