Two Days of Action Complete for Cloud County Track Teams at 2023 KU Relays
Getting an early start to competition this week with action taking place on Thursday and Friday, The Cloud County Community College track and field teams have produced 14 top-five finishes over the course of the first two days of the 100th University of Kansas Relays held at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kansas.
Thursday Results:
Things couldn't have gotten off to a much better start for CCCC to the weekend as day one events would lead to nine top-five finishes and two event victories with the T-Bird men accounting for five of the top-five finishes with the Cloud County women bringing home three event finishes in the top-five. On the men's side, Cloud County would see sophomore Kidus Misgina run a 5,000-meter winning time of 14:30.81 to nearly miss out on a school-record time set last season by the Chicago, Illinois native to highlight three top-five finishes on the track for the T-Bird men. Adding a fourth-place finish in the 800 meters would be Hassan Abidi (1:57.33) while Siyabonga Mokgothu would take fifth in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:00.03. The lone two field events with CCCC men's athletes on Thursday would also prove to be successful with Mohamed Ahmed taking runner-up honors in the hammer throw (63.98 meters, 209 ft. - 11 in.) before seeing Ben Okraska record a new season-best in the pole vault by clearing 4.77 meters (15 ft. - 7.75 in.) to finish second among a 14-competitor field.
A strong day would also be had by the T-Bird women as Passion Crews would win the 800 meters with a time of 2:17.79 to account for Cloud County's second event win of the day between the men and women. Fifth and sixth-place finishes in the 1,500 meters would be had by Melody Ochana (4:52.91) and Lucy Ndungu (4:55.46) with both now qualified for the 2023 NJCAA Outdoor Championship meet in the event. The pole vault would also have a pair of CCCC women finish towards the top with Mia Manley recording a new season-best of 3.57 meters (11 ft. - 8.5 in.) to take third while Jasmine Sakaguchi would finish fourth after clearing 3.42 meters (11 ft. - 2.5 in.).
Friday Results:
Picking up where they left off from Thursday evening to put together another strong day, Cloud County would see both Miracle Thompson (100-meter hurdles, 13.60 seconds) and Vimbayi Maisvorewa (400 meters, 55.10 seconds) qualify for the finals of their respective races after finishing in the top-two of the preliminary rounds while seeing a pair of sixth-place finishes come from Jessi Brummett in the javelin (39.34 meters, 129 ft. - 1 in.) and Vanessa Mercera in the high jump (1.68 meters, 5 ft. - 6 in.). CCCC would also have the 4x800 meter relay team in action on Friday with Ochana, Crews, Mary Kua, and Aina Goir combining to finish eighth in the event with a time of 10:05.57 seconds.
As for the men on Friday, it would be the distance medley relay team of Raziel Patton, Mason Schurr, Quwayne Reid, and Mokgothu combining to post a time of 10:23.55 to win the event and account for the lone T-Bird win of the day as three other events would see top-eight finishes. Patton, Mokgothu, and Reid would also run in the 4x800 meter relay along with Hassan Abidi to run a time of 7:45.36 to finish third out of 13 relay teams while seeing Oageng Mdlela finish as the top collegiate competitor in the triple jump with a season-best mark of 15.42 meters (50 ft. 7.25 in.). Cloud County would also have Emmanuel Wanga compete in the 400-meter preliminary round and run the sixth-fastest time at 48.97 seconds to qualify for Saturday's finals.
What's Next?
Split squad action is set to take place on Saturday with the T-Birds closing out the KU Relays in Lawrence with a limited number of athletes still scheduled to compete while also sending athletes to the 2023 Bethel College Invitational held in North Newton, Kansas. Links to live results at both meets can be found on the track and field schedule pages which can be found here: 2023 Cloud County track schedule page.