EMPORIA – Looking to strengthen their hold as the top-ranked NJCAA team the past two weeks, the Cloud County Community College men's track and field team would earn nine event wins to go along with numerous season-bests as part of a team-runner up finish at the 2021 Emporia State University Midwest Classic held at Witten Track and Welch Stadium in Emporia on Saturday.
Ending the meet with a total of 127 points, Cloud County would trail only host Emporia State in the team race as the Hornets would run away with the team title by scoring 200 total points. The meet, which featured a mix of NCAA Division II, NAIA, and NJCAA schools, would see only one other team break the 100-point barrier as Iowa Western would finish third with 101 points with the remaining 11 schools also finishing with 75 or fewer team points.
Earning a pair of event victories and coming up just three seconds shy of breaking his own school record would be Awet Beraki with wins in the 10,000 meters (30:08.46) and 5,000 meters (14:45.43) while fellow distance runners Habtamu Geta (1,500 meters – 4:01.02) and Saba Khvichava (3,000 meter steeplechase – 9:17.15) also earned event victories. The remaining event victories would all come by relay teams or field events as Jaysaun Smith, Shadrick Tansi, Emmanuel Wanga, and Rylan Cheney would win the 1,600 meter sprint relay in a time of 3:30.00 while Geta, Michael Iyali, Khvichava, and Cheney posted a time of 8:03.83 in the 4x800 meter relay to win and post a season-best time.
Field event victories would come courtesy of Daniel Cope in the hammer throw (53.07 meters, 174 ft. – 1 in.) and Courtney Lawrence in the shot put (18.38 meters, 60 ft. – 3.75 in.) as well as Andrew Betton in the high jump (1.91 meters, 6 ft. – 3.25 in.). Cope would go on to earn a third-place finish in the discus (45.46 meters, 149 ft. – 1 in.) while Lawrence would finish eighth in the event with a toss of 40.71 meters (133 ft. – 6 in.).
Also earning top-three finishes on the day would be Iyali in the 1,500 meters (4:01.93) and the 4x400 meter relay team with at time of 3:17.35 as CCCC would also get a fourth-place finish from Edwin Kipainoi in the 10,000 meters (32:17.64) and fifth-place finish in the long jump from Smith (6.46 meters, 21 ft. – 2.5 in.) to cap off a day that saw 14 different times or marks that would finish in the top-five of their respective event.
What's next?
Fans will have a chance to catch Cloud County in action at home this Thursday in their only home meet of the year when CCCC hosts the 2021 Thunderbird Classic at Harold M. Clark Stadium in Concordia. The 2021 edition will be the second in the event history following the inaugural meet in 2019 as action will get underway at 11 a.m. with field events while running events will begin at 1 p.m.
--cloudtbirds.com--