Cloud County Athletics
PITTSBURG - With five events scored, the Cloud County Community College men's track and field team has built a 10-point lead at the end of day one of the 2022 NJCAA Region VI Indoor Track and Field Championships inside the Robert W. Plaster Center on the campus of Pittsburg State University.
Day one action would see the T-Birds score a total of 38 points to get out in front of the 11 Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference schools that scored points on Saturday as Northwest Kansas Technical College is in second with 28 points followed by Barton in third place with 27 points. Cowley College is in fourth place heading into final day action after scoring 20 points on day one.
Earning NJCAA Region VI Titles in their first region championship appearance would be freshmen Mohamed Ahmed (weight throw - 19.33 meters, 60 ft. - 1 in.) and Ben Okraska (pole vault, 4.43 meters, 14 ft. - 6.25 in.) as Ahmed would win by 2.23 meters while Okraska was nearly six inches clear on the vault of runner-up Andwele Shurland of Highland Community College. With the two champions accounting for 20 of CCCC's 38 points, the T-Birds would also get a sixth-place finish from Andrew Betton in the pole vault (3.83 meters, 12 ft. - 6.75 in.) in field events as well as a fifth and sixth-place finish from Timothy Nyinguan (6.93 meters, 22 ft. - 9 in.) and Narindra Rafidimalala (6.92 meters, 22 ft. - 8.5 in.) in the long jump.
Track events would also lead to points for Cloud County on Saturday as the distance medley relay team of Quwayne Reid, Daniel Siaffa, Rylan Cheney, and Michael Iyali would team up to earn fourth with a time of 10:35.15 while Kidus Misgina would take seventh and post a national qualifying time in the 5,000 meters with a time of 15:00.41. All remaining track events will be scored on Sunday as Cloud County would see Betton and Anson Moses currently sit in first (2,711 points) and fourth (2,633 points) with four events complete in the heptathlon.