Cloud County Women Get Outdoor Season Started with Big Marks at Cowley Invitational

Looking to carry momentum over from the indoor season, the Cloud County Community College women's track and field team would show little rust following a three-week break before starting the 2023 outdoor season as the T-Birds would record eight national qualifying marks and get eight event wins at the 2023 Cowley College Mark A. Phillips Tiger Invitational at the Cowley Track in Arkansas City, Kansas on Saturday, March 25th.

As a team, Cloud County would have 23 total top-five finishes across 17 events throughout the day as no team scores would be kept for the meet that featured eight teams from the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference.

Recording two national qualifying marks each would be sophomores Vimbayi Maisvorewa (200 meters, 400 meters) and Miracle Thompson (100 meters hurdles, 400-meter hurdles) in addition to running the first and last legs of the 4x100 meter relay team that would run an event-winning and national qualifying time of 48.07 seconds. For Maisvorewa, a time of 24.12 seconds in the 200 meters would win the event by .72 seconds before going on to win the 400 meters (54.54 seconds) by over three seconds as just three runners in the event would run a time under one minute. Thompson's times in the hurdles would come with an event win in the 100-meter hurdles (14.73 seconds) before finishing runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles (1:05.81) with teammate Vanessa Mercera (1:04.47) winning the event to give CCCC two national qualifiers in the event.

The remaining two national qualifying marks for the T-Birds on Saturday would come in field events with Mia Manley (pole vault) and Tamara Thompson (discus) both winning their respective events with Manley clearing 3.12 meters (10 ft. – 2.75 in) in the pole vault while Thompson would record a throw of 42.15 meters (138 ft. – 3 in.) to best an 18-thrower field. Cloud County would also get an event win in the 1,500 meters from sophomore Melody Ochana (5:07.45) along with runner-up finishes from Passion Crews in the 800 meters (2:22.61), Jasmine Sakaguchi in the pole vault (3.02 meters, 9 ft. – 10.75 in.), Mercera in the long jump (5.26meters, 17 ft. – 3.25 in.), and the 4x400 meter relay team (Ochana, Aliya Johnson, Bailey Rock, and Emmy Punches, 4:16.07).

Other top-five finishes from CCCC on the track would include third-place finishes from Mary Kua in the 800 meters (2:25.87) and Nikola Prochazkova in the 5,000 meters (22:02.87) along with fourth-place finishes from Ariyah Smith in the 100 meters (12.68 seconds) and Mercera in the 100-meter hurdles (15.73 seconds). Kua would also take fifth in the 1,500 meters (5:17.74) while seeing Ochana take fifth in the 800 meters (2:33.30) while Sakaguchi would earn a fifth-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles (17.59 seconds).

Four other events would also have top-five finishes for the T-Birds on Saturday with Shackala Henry and Mariem Soltani both finishing in third in the high jump after clearing 1.57 meters (5 ft. – 1.75 in.) with Henry taking fourth in the triple jump (10.77 meters, 35 ft. – 4 in.) to go along with fourth-place finishes from Punches in the javelin (30.19 meters, 99 ft. – 0 in.) and Mallory Callihan in the shot put (11.60 meters, 38 ft. – 0.75 in.).

What's Next?
Cloud County will be back in action on Friday, March 31st to open up the first day of the two-day Friends University Falcon Open which will be held at Adair-Austin Stadium in Wichita, Kansas.