Cloud County Men's Track Wins Second-Straight Outdoor Meet with Friends University Open Title

A second-straight meet win would be highlighted by a pair of school-record performances for the Cloud County Community College men's track and field team as the T-Birds would run away with the Friends University Open team title at Adair-Austin Stadium in Wichita, Kansas on Saturday, April 2nd.

Winning the meet with 153 total points, Butler Community College would be the next closest team in the standings with 101 total points with Indian Hills an even more distant third with 86 total points. Host Friends University would finish fourth among the 24-team field with 84.5 points with Fort Scott (56 points) rounding out the top five.

The first school record to fall would come Friday afternoon courtesy of Mohamed Ahmed who would break his own record set just one week prior in the hammer throw by unleashing a monster throw of 62.40 meters (204 ft. – 8 in.) to best the 36-competitor field. Ahmed now leads the NJCAA by nearly 30 feet against his next-closest competitor with seven athletes currently recording qualifying marks in the event. CCCC's other school record would come on Saturday afternoon with Elias Rivera, Timothy Nyinguan, Jonathan Dende, and Emmanuel Wanga coming together to run a time of 3:11.24 in the 4x400 meter relay to just edge out the old record of 3:11.38 set in 2018.

In total, Cloud County would post six event victories with the 4x800 meter relay team winning with a time of 7:47.84 along with Kidus Misgina in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (national qualifying time of 9:25.78), Vincent Ugwoke in the discus (national qualifying mark of 53.25 meters, 174 ft. – 8 in.), Wanga in the 400 meters (47.43 seconds), and Edwin Kipainoi in the 5,000 meters (15:14.30). The T-Birds would also get runner-up finishes from Michael Iyali in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:36.75), Ben Okraska in the pole vault (4.40 meters, 14 ft. – 5.25 in.), and Elias Rivera in the 400-meter hurdles (53.70 seconds).

Third-place finishes would be had from Iyali in the 1,500 meters (4:01.17) and Quwayne Reid in the 800 meters (1:55.38) along with the second 4x400 meter relay team that CCCC would enter (3:16.00) as Cloud County would also get a fourth-place finish from Elmer Sotelo in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (10:10.18), the 4x100 meter relay "A" team (41.49 seconds), Misgina in the 1,500 meters (4:01.98), Nyinguan in the 400 meters (47.91 seconds), and Davit Lukava in the 400-meter hurdles (54.13 seconds).

Remaining top-five finishes from T-Bird athletes over the course of the two-day meet would be the 4x800 meter relay "B" team with a time of 8:12.94, Freider Fornasari with a national qualifying time of 10.47 in the 100 meters, and Raziel Patton in the 800 meters (1:55.71).

What's Next?
Cloud County is back in Wichita next weekend to compete in the 2022 Wichita State University KT Woodman Classic. Action officially gets underway on Wednesday and Thursday with the multi-event athletes, with a majority of the action taking place on Friday, April 8th, and Saturday, April 9th from Cessna Stadium.