Cloud County Track Gets Off to Strong Start During Long Weekend in Wichita
The first three days of action of a four-day week across two meets down in Wichita, Kansas has led to big performances from both the Cloud County men's and women's track and field teams at the Wichita State University Combined Events and Friends University Spring Invitational.
Action on Wednesday and Thursday featured the Wichita State University Combined Events with Kevin Brooks and Brandon Hutchinson both competing before seeing hammer throwers for both the T-Bird women and men compete at Friends University on Thursday morning. Action continued over at Austin-Adair Stadium at Friends University on Friday with CCCC getting one school-record performance and three national qualifying marks from their respective athletes.
Wichita State Combined Events
Both Brooks and Hutchinson made the most of their two days and 10 events at Cessna Stadium as the duo combined for six top-three finishes across the 10 total events with Brooks taking an event win in the 400 meters (50.05 seconds) before seeing Hutchinson post the top time in the 110 meter hurdles (14.64 seconds). Brooks went on to add a runner-up finish in the 100 meters (10.62 seconds) to edge out Hutchinson who took third (10.91 seconds) before going on to take third in the 1,500 meters (5:02.32) with Hutchinson taking third in the javelin (46.73 meters, 153 ft. - 3 in.). Following the 10 events, Brooks took fourth after tallying 6,251 points to score the second-best decathlon total in the NJCAA this season while Hutchinson took fifth (6,025 points, fifth in the NJCAA).
Friends University Spring Invitational
With just the hammer throw taking place featuring CCCC athletes on Thursday to kick off the three-day meet, the T-Birds made the msot of the opportunity with Tamara Thompson winning the 41-competitor event on the women's side by recording a national qualifying mark of 50.26 meters (164 ft. - 11 in.) to be one of three athletes for Cloud County to finish in the top-nine. Adding a seventh-place finish was Margherita Sala (45.69 meters, 149 ft. - 11 in.) to beat out the ninth-place finish from Adrienne Locke-Garcia (43.28 meters, 142 ft. - 0 in.). The CCC men meanwhile were led by Josh Shelly who recorded a mark of 40.92 meters (134 ft. - 3 in.) and took 11th out of 27 competitors in the event.
Action picked up again on Friday beginning with the women's pole vault which saw two T-Birds earn top-five finishes with Jasmine Sakaguchi taking third (3.55 meters, 11 ft. - 7.75 in.) to go along with a fifth-place finish from Bradie Medina (3.25 meters, 10 ft. - 8 in.). Cloud County also got a national qualifying mark in field events from Chenessa Davis in the long jump, punching her ticket to the 2024 National Championship meet after placing second with a mark of 5.68 meters (18 ft. - 7.5 in.).
Highlighting Friday's action was a school-record performance from the 4x800 meter relay team of Jaelyn Rumback, Mercy Angaamchaab, N Vanee Anchike, and Nontokozo Ncube as the four combined to run a runner-up time of 9:10.55 and break the previous school-record by over 10 seconds while setting the new top-mark in the NJCAA this season. Adding to the top performance on the track was Ozia Trujillo in the 3,000 meter steeplechase as the freshman ran a time of 11:33.23 in her first time running the event collegiately to win the event and qualified for nationals with her time currently ranking fifth in the NJCAA.
The T-Bird men also had athletes in action on Friday with Oageng Mdlela (long jump) and Josh Deiter recording the only two marks in field events by CCCC men's athletes with Mdlela taking sixth with a leap of 6.97 meters (22 ft. - 10.5 in.) before seeing Deiter take 10th in his event (43.48 meters, 142 ft. - 8 in.). On the track, it was Felix Surtan running the seventh-best time in the 3,000-meter steeplechase by finishing in 10:15.11 before seeing Siyabonga Mokgothu take the track in the 5,000 meters where he took seventh with a time of 15:03.02.
What's Next?
After three consecutive days of action, the final day of competition this week sees Cloud County close out the 2024 Friends University Spring Invitational with a full schedule of events coming up on Saturday, April 6th. Field events will get action back underway at 9 AM with the discus before seeing track events pick back up at 11 AM and going on a rolling schedule throughout the day.