Cloud County Athletics
PITTSBURG - Entering the final day of the 2022 NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in third place, the Cloud County Community College women's track and field team would add another 49 points to their team total to secure a third-place national finish at the Robert W. Plaster Center in Pittsburg on Saturday.
Tallying a two-day total of 77 points, Cloud County would trail only back-to-back National Champion Iowa Western Community College (160 points) and New Mexico Junior College (98 points) to earn a second-straight indoor podium finish. Finishing in fourth place behind the T-Birds would be South Plains College with 65 points while Barton Community College rounded out the top-five with a fifth-place finish (63 points).
Highlighting the day for the CCCC women was a National Title performance from the 4x800 meter relay team as Passion Crews, Abigail Fisher, Pamela Milano, and Ludjenie Mondesir would win the event in a school-record time of 9:28.56. The performance would be one of five school-record performances from the Cloud County women's track and field team over the course of the weekend as the 4x400 meter relay team of Isila Apkup, Leonie Beu, Milano, and Vimbayi Maisvorewa would earn a national runner-up finish with a school-record time of 3:44.15 in addition to a school-record time from Maisvorewa in the 400 meters (53.86) as part of a national runner-up finish of her own. The other two school records set by T-Bird women's athletes at the National Championship meet would come on Friday courtesy of Vanessa Mercera in the pentathlon (3,375 points) and Miracle Thompson in the 60-meter hurdles (8.42) as Thompson would take fourth in the 60-meter hurdles on Saturday with a time of 8.45 and Mercera would finish seventh in the high jump (1.65 meters, 5 ft. - 5 in.).
CCCC would also get a national runner-up performance from Milano in the 600-meter finals with a time of 1:32.87) while Crews would take fifth in the 800 meters with a time of 2:19.27. Adding a seventh-place finish in her national championship meet debut would come from Mallory Callihan in the weight throw (14.91 meters, 48 ft. - 11 in.) while the remaining top-eight finishes on Saturday would come courtesy of Thompson in the 60 meters (7.66 seconds) and Beu in the 400 meters (57.35).
What's next?
Cloud County will have a rare off week coming up this upcoming week before getting their 2022 outdoor season underway the week of March 14 with two meets on the docket. March 18 has the T-Birds slated to head to the Emporia State University Spring Invitational before heading to the Kansas Wesleyan University Relays on March 19.