Cloud County Track Teams Post 14 National Qualifying Marks at Cowley Mark Phillips Tiger Invitational

After having their first outdoor track and field meet of the season last week cut short due to weather, the Cloud County Community College track and field teams took full advantage of getting a full meet in by posting 14 national qualifying marks at the 2024 Cowley College Mark Phillips Tiger Invitational held at the Mark Phillips Track and Field Complex in Arkansas City, Kansas on Saturday, March 23rd.

Of the 14 national qualifying marks recorded by Cloud County, 10 were posted by the T-Bird women's track and field team with the remaining four being recorded by the CCCC men. Nine of the 14 marks took place in field events (six women, three men) with the T-Bird women adding four of the five national qualifying marks that took place on the track. No team scores were recorded for the meet, which consisted primarily of NJCAA schools with a limited number of NCAA Division II and NAIA athletes also competing.

Four event wins highlighted the women's results on Saturday as Rafiatu Nuhu (400 meters – 55.63 seconds), Shackala Henry (high jump – 1.63 meters, 5 ft. – 4.25 in.) N Vanee Anchike (1,500 meters – 4:44.79), and Elizabeth Dunham (pole vault – 3.32 meters, 10 ft. – 10.75 in.) all won their respective events. Jasmine Sakaguchi also recorded a national qualifying mark in the pole vault by placing third after clearing 3.12 meters (10 ft. – 2.75 in.) while seeing Mercy Angaamchaab place fourth in the 1,500 meters just 10 seconds back of Anchike with a national qualifying time of 4:55.41. The remaining three national qualifying marks for the CCCC women all came in throwing events with Tamara Thompson placing fourth in the discus (44.87 meters, 147 ft. – 2 in.), Adrienne Locke-Garcia taking fifth in the shot put (13.29 meters, 43 ft. – 7.25 in.) and Margherita Sala taking seventh in the hammer throw (44.95 meters, 147 ft. – 6 in.)

The Cloud County women went on to add four more top-eight finishes in field events led by a third-place finish in the long jump from Chenessa Davis (5.32 meters, 17 ft. – 5.5 in.) to go along with a fifth-place finish from Sala (39.90 meters, 128 ft. – 11 in.) and eighth-place finish from Locke-Garcia (37.73 meters, 123 ft. – 9 in.) in the discus and an eighth-place finish from Emery May in the javelin throw (30.55 meters, 100 ft. – 3 in.). On the track, Davis added a second-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles (14.88 seconds) to earn one of two runner-up finishes for the T-Birds as Nuhu took second in the 200 meters (25.11 seconds). The remaining three finishes to place in the top eight all resulted in fifth-place finishes with Chidinma Nwachukwu running a time of 58.34 seconds in the 400 meters, Jaelyn Rumback recording a time of 1:11.70 in the 400-meter hurdles, and Nikola Prochazkova posting a time of 21:08.30 in the 5,000 meters.

On the men's side, four national qualifying marks came in four different events highlighted by event wins from Siyabonga Mokgothu (5,000 meters – 15:05.09) and Awakhiwe Ndlovu (triple jump 14.84 meters – 14.84 meters, 48 ft. – 8.25 in.) to go along with a second-place finish from Jaren Aurand in the javelin (54.93 meters, 180 ft. – 2 in.) and third-place finish from Mohamed Belhassen in the pole vault (4.47 meters, 14 ft. – 8 in.). One additional event win came from Lubo Zlatev in the long jump with a mark of 7.17 meters (23 ft. – 6.25 in.) before seeing CCCC add runner-up finishes in three other events with Ishmael Acheampong (800 meters – 1:54.64), Nirmit Dahiya (1,500 meters – 4:02.42) and Ethan Ochana (3,000-meter steeplechase – 10:31.71) all taking second in their events. Dahiya added a fifth-place finish in the 1,500 meters (4:02.42) to go along with a fifth-place finish from Arne Roehl in the high jump (1.97 meters, 6 ft. – 5.5 in.) as the T-Birds had two top-eight finishers in the event (Trey Collins – eighth place by clearing 1.87 meters, 6 ft. – 1.5 in.).

Remaining top-eight finishes for Cloud County in the meet came across three different events with the shot put accounting for a seventh-place finish from Andre Smikle (14.13 meters, 46 ft. – 4.25 in.) and eighth-place finish from Josh Deiter (13.93 meters, 45 ft. – 8.5 in.) to go along with a seventh-place finish from Smikle in the discus (43.51 meters, 142 ft. – 9 in.) and sixth-place finish from Skylar McFarling in the pole vault (4.22 meters, 13 ft. – 10 in.).  

What's Next?
Cloud County will be off next weekend as part of the Easter holiday weekend before returning to action on Thursday, April 4th to kick off the first of three consecutive days at the Friends University Open and Multi Events in Wichita, Kansas.