Cloud County Men's Track Takes Lead Entering Final Day of Region VI Championships
Two days of the 2024 NJCAA Region VI Outdoor Track Championships have come and gone with the Cloud County Community College men's track and field team leading a 15-team race in the men's scoring while the women are fourth of 12 teams heading into final day action at the Bill Keller Family Sports Complex in Pratt, Kansas on Friday, May 3rd.
Through the first two days, six of 22 total events were scored in both the women's and men's team races as separation is starting to occur with the top teams in both respective races. On the men's side, the T-Bird men have 39 total points and hold a three-point lead over second-place Barton (36) followed by Coffeyville and Hutchinson in third (22 points) while Cowley, Colby, and Dodge City all are tied for fifth with 18 points. In the women's race, Barton has opened a substantial lead with 64 total points with Hutchinson in second (29 points), Garden City in third (25 points), Cloud County in fourth (23 points), and Fort Scott in fifth (22 points).
Day one featured just the decathlon for Cloud County on the men's side with Brandon Hutchinson and Kevin Brooks both in action and securing an event win among the five contested events in the multi-event competition with Brooks winning the 100-meter dash (10.47 seconds) and 400 meters (48.48 seconds) while Hutchinson won the long jump (7.14 meters, 23 ft. – 5.25 in.). Hutchinson added a third-place finish in the 100-meter dash (10.91 seconds) while Brooks took third in the long jump (6.99 meters, 22 ft. – 11.25 in.) and shot put (10.35 meters, 33 ft. – 11.5 in.) as both athletes entered the final day of the two-day competition in the top four of the 14 competitor field.
With the decathlon resuming action in the 110-meter hurdles, Hutchinson took first with a time of 15.08 seconds and added a win in the discus (38.85 meters, 127 ft. – 5 in.) and pole vault (4.17 meters, 13 ft. – 8.25 in.) along with a third-place finish in the javelin (45.47 meters, 149 ft. – 2 in.) to work his way up the standings in the final scoring. Brooks finished no worse than fifth in any of the five events contested on Friday and highlighted his day with a second-place finish in the 1,500 meters (4:57.94) to go along with a third-place finish in the pole vault (3.37 meters, 11 ft. – 0.75 in.), a fourth-place finish in the discus (29.09 meters, 95 ft. – 5 in.), and fifth-place finishes in the 110-meter hurdles (16.54 seconds) and javelin (40.08 meters, 131 ft. – 6 in.) to follow up a strong opening day. Following the conclusion of the 10 events, Brooks finished with 6,457 points to take second out of 12 competitors who finished all events while Hutchinson finished third with 6,399 points.
After having no competitors compete in the heptathlon to open the competition on day one, the CCCC women got their championship meet underway on Friday with seven top-eight marks to account for their 23 total points with two of the marks qualifying for the finals of their respective races on Saturday. Highlighting the day was the 4x800 meter relay team of Ozia Trujillo, N Vanee Anchike, Mercy Angaamchaab, and Nontokozo Ncube once again leaving their mark with a Region VI Title and school-record time of 9:01.12 to eclipse their previous top-three all-time NJCAA time of 9:03.69. The T-Bird women also got a top time in the preliminary race of the 100-meter hurdles with Chenessa Davis posting a time of 13.95 seconds to qualify for Saturday's finals while taking eighth in the long jump (5.52 meters, 18 ft. – 1.5 in.). Two top-eight finishers in the discus for CCCC saw Tamara Thompson take second with a throw of 51.05 meters (167 ft. – 6 in.) while Margherita Sala finished seventh (38.45 meters, 126 ft. – 1 in.) for another 10 points. The remaining team points for Cloud County came from Emery May in the javelin after a seventh-place finish with a mark of 33.72 meters (110 ft. – 7 in.) while Rafiatu Nuhu finished fourth in the preliminary round of the 200 meters with a time of 24.08 seconds).
With 14 of their 39 points coming in the decathlon, the T-Bird men went on to match the women in the 4x800 meter relay by having Ishmael Acheampong, Kamogelo Thipe, Andres Young, and Nichalas Power combine to run a winning time of 7:42.10 with the top-five teams in the event all posting times under eight minutes. The lone other track event to bring points on Friday was the 10,000 meters to cap off the night with Siyabonga Mokgothu taking fifth in a time of 32:27.53 seconds while seeing Hutchinson qualify sixth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.41 seconds. In field events, the long jump accounted for two of the three remaining top-eight finishes with Hutchinson taking fourth and nearly matching his decathlon mark after finishing with a mark of 7.13 meters (23 ft. – 4.75 in.) while Oageng Mdlela leaped 6.85 meters (22 ft. – 5.75 in.) to take seventh. Andre Smikle added a fifth-place finish in the discus (48.35 meters, 158 ft. – 7 in.) to account for the remaining four team points in the scoring for CCCC.
What's Next?
A 10 AM start for the field events kicks off the third and final day of action with five field events on both the women's and men's side being joined by track events which will get underway at 12 PM and finish up shortly before 5 PM to conclude the three-day meet. The Cloud County women will have a full field of three competitors in seven of the 16 events being contested on Saturday while the men will field full fields in eight different events along with both T-Bird teams having a 4x400 meter relay team entered in the final event of the meet.