PITTSBURG – Competing in a rare Sunday meet against only National Junior College Athletic Association competition, the number four-ranked Cloud County Community College men's track and field team would add three new national qualifying marks at the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference/NJCAA Region VI Invitational held at the Robert W. Plaster Center on the campus of Pittsburg State University on Sunday.
No team scores were kept for the meet, which featured mostly KJCCC schools along with a few from NJCAA Region XI.
Getting redemption from last week, sophomore Marcquiece Cade would manage to hit one of the three qualifying marks by winning the high jump with a mark of 2.00 meters (6 ft. – 6.75 in.) while Andrew Betton would take second in the event (1.95 meters, 6 ft. – 4.75 in.). The other two national qualifying marks would come in distance events as the T-Birds would see Awet Beraki post a winning time of 14:38.19 in the 5,000 meters along with the distance medley relay team of Rylan Cheney, Jaysaun Smith, Ephraim Lerkin, and Michael Iyali taking second with a national qualifying time of 10:25.28.
Cloud County would also get an event win from Lerkin in the 600 meters with a time of 1:22.12 while the 4x400 meter relay team of Smith, Timothy Nyinguan, Betton, and Narindra Rafidimala would run a season-best time of 3:17.74 to improve upon the already posted national qualifying time in the event. A trio of top-five finishes would come in the pole vault for CCCC as Betton (third) and Marcquiece Cade (fourth) would both clear 3.94 meters (12 ft. – 11 in.) while Eduardo Mendoza would clear 3.79 meters (12 ft. – 5.25 in.) for a fifth-place finish.
Iyali and Beraki would each add another top-five finish in the 1,000 meters as Iyali would run a time of 2:36.36 for a fourth-place finish just ahead of Beraki who took fifth with a time of 2:38.18. Rylan Cheney would give the T-Birds three of the top-eight times in the event by taking eighth in a time of 2:38.23 in what would be his only other event of the day.
Other top-eight finishes for Cloud County would come courtesy of Zachery Jones in the high jump (sixth – 1.80 meters, 5 ft. – 10.75 in.) as well as Emanuel Wanga in the 400 meters (sixth, 49.59). CCCC would also get a seventh-place finish in the triple jump from Nyinguan (12.59 meters, 41 ft. – 4.75 in.) and an eighth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles from Cade with a season-best time of 8.40.
What's next?
Cloud County heads back to where the season started on Saturday when they head to Highland to take part in the Highland Community College Tom Bond Invitational. The meet is one of the final tune-ups on the schedule for Cloud County before the 2021 NJCAA Region VI Championships on Feb. 20 and 21.
--cloudtbirds.com--