Cloud County Track & Field Teams Open Outdoor Season in Weather Shortened Meet

Trying to get their 2024 outdoor season started, the Cloud County Community College women's and men's track and field teams dealt with two days of weather affect and ultimately cancel the 2024 University of North Texas Bill Schmidt Classic held at the University of North Texas Track and Field Complex in Denton, Texas.

The meet began Friday morning and saw all the scheduled events completed despite an hour-and-a-half delay as officials moved the start time for Saturday up two hours in an effort to beat the weather moving into the area before seeing action forced to stop around noon and eventually cancel the remainder of the meet with just four events featuring T-Bird athletes taking place on day two.

Highlighting the weekend was a trio of national qualifying marks for the Cloud County women in the 800 meters with Nontokozo Ncube (2:12.01), N Vanee Anchike (2:14.14) and Mercy Angaamchaab (2:18.57) recording a one-two-three finish in the event with Jaelyn Rumback (2:28.37) and Kynlie Crowdis (2:31.29) taking eighth and 10th in the event. The CCCC women also saw Ozia Trujillo run a national qualifying time of 4:48.11 in the 1,500 meters on Friday evening to take second out of 28 runners in the event as the T-Bird women finished with four national qualifying times in the meet. Three other marks finished in the top eight of their respective events for Cloud County on Friday, with Adrienne Locke-Garcia taking fourth in the shot put (12.47 meters, 40 ft. - 11 in.) while seeing Margherita Sala (42.59 meters, 139 ft. - 9 in.) and Emaleigh Towner (38.00 meters (124 ft. - 8 in.) taking fifth and eighth in the hammer throw.

Despite not having any national qualifying marks throughout the weekend, a strong showing by the Cloud County men saw the T-Birds get an event win from Siyabonga Mokgothu in the 1,500 meters (4:01.07) along with a third-place finish from Brandon Hutchinson in the long jump after a mark of 6.97 meters (22 ft. - 10.75 in.). Two other events on Friday also brought home top-eight finishes for CCCC with Arne Roehl (1.90 meters, 6 ft. - 2.75 in.) and Trey Collins (1.85 meters, 6 ft. - 0.75 in.) taking fifth and seventh in the high jump while Andre Smikle (13.82 meters, 45 ft. - 4 in.) and Josh Deiter (13.74 meters, 45 ft. - 1 in.) took seventh and eighth in the shot put.

In the three contested events on Saturday that featured Cloud County men's athletes, CCCC was led by a second-place finish from Hutchinson in the 110-meter hurdles following a time of 14.88 seconds before seeing Ishmael Acheampong take eighth in the 800 meters with a time of 1:55.55. The final top-eight finish from the T-Birds came in the pole vault, with Skylar McFarling clearing 4.00 meters (13 ft. - 1.5 in.) to take fifth.

What's Next?
The remainder of the 2024 outdoor season for CCCC is scheduled to take place in the Sunflower State beginning next weekend as Cloud County will head to Arkansas City, Kansas to take part in the Cowley Community College Mark Phillips Invitational. Named after 2021 NJCAA Cross Country and Track and Field Hall of Fame inductee, long-time Tiger coach, and T-Bird alumni Mark Phillips, the meet will take place on Saturday, March 23rd with action set to get underway at 11 AM with field events before seeing track events begin at 12 PM.