LEVELLAND, Texas – Championship performances from the Cloud County Community College men's and women's 4x800 meter relay teams would lead to the first two NJCAA National Championships for the T-Birds on day one of the 2021 NJCAA Outdoor Track and Field National Championship meet in Levelland, Texas on Tuesday.
With day one action in the books, the Cloud County women currently sit in second place of 15 teams with 27 total points while the T-Bird men are fourth overall with 16 points coming in limited scored events on both sides. Only six points separate the CCCC men from day one leader and host South Plains College with 22 points while the Cloud County women trail day one leader New Mexico Junior College by seven points heading into tomorrow's day two action.
Posting a time of 9:31.62, the women's 4x800 relay team of Patricia Koma, Ludjenie Mondesir, Passion Crews, and Pamela Milano would run away with the title in dominating fashion with nearly 14 seconds separating CCCC from national runner-up Hawkeye Community College. The T-Bird women would also get a national runner-up finish in the javelin from Brenna Davidson (40.25 meters, 132 ft. – 1 in.) while Hollie Stewart would take fourth in the event (39.41 meters, 129 ft. – 3. in.) to score an additional 13 team points for Cloud County.
The remaining points on the women's side scored by CCCC on Tuesday would come courtesy of a fifth-place finish from Marie Forbes in hammer throw, finishing out her season with a throw of 49.66 meters (162 ft. – 1 in.). Cloud County would get a pair of qualifying times for Thursday's event finals on Thursday as Leonie Beu (400 meters, 56.65) and Tashira Edwards (400-meter hurdles, 1:06.10) would finish third and fifth respectively in their preliminary races to set up a chance at some more points later in the week for the T-Birds. CCCC would also have Aeryn Reckward compete in day one of the heptathlon on Tuesday, scoring a total of 2,133 points across four events (100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200 meters) to sit in ninth place of the multi-events with three events remaining to complete on Wednesday.
A strong outing on the men's side would set Cloud County up for some points to be scored each of the next two days in addition to the points that were scored on Tuesday as the men's 4x800 meter relay team of Rylan Cheney, Saba Khvichava, Michael Iyali, and Habtamu Geta would make it a clean sweep of the event by posting a time of 7:43.19. The T-Birds would also get a third-place finish in the hammer throw from Daniel Cope (57.80 meters, 189 ft. – 7 in.) and a qualifying time of 53.53 seconds in the 400- meter hurdles from Ephraim Lerkin to make Thursday's event finals.
CCCC also has the number one and two athletes in the decathlon following five events on day one of the two-day multi-event as Marcquiece Cade leads the 16-participant field with 3,340 points while Andrew Betton is second with 3,313 points. The duo would post a one-two finish in the high jump with Betton clearing 1.95 meters (6 ft. – 4.75) and Cade going 1.92 meters (6 ft. – 3.5 in.) to go along with a pair of third place finishes from Cade in the shot put (10.64 meters, 34 ft. – 11 in.) and 400 meters (51.44).
May 12, 2021
T-Bird men, women NJCAA national outdoor champions in 4x800
Posted May 12, 2021 5:04 PM