CONCORDIA, Kansas — The Cloud County Community College men's track and field team will be plenty busy this weekend at the NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Texas Tech University on Friday and Saturday.
But the T-Birds wouldn't have it any other way.
Armed with 18 nationally qualified athletes across 34 events, the No. 4 ranked T-Birds have high hopes about what they can do individually and collectively down in Lubbock, Texas.
"Ultimate goal for us as a team will be getting into the top-3 and getting a trophy," said Cloud County head coach, Harry Kitchener. "We have a chance to do that with a lot of entries and being ranked No. 1 in a couple different events."
Cloud County will look to do the bulk of its damage in the middle to long distance races, led by the sophomore trio of Moses Dirane, Thobile Mosito and Stephen Marindich.
Mosito heads into the weekend ranked No. 1 in the 5,000-meter run and No. 2 in the 3,000-meter run. Dirane currently has the second best time in the nation in the men's mile and 1,000-meter run events, and Marindich currently owns the No. 4 ranking in the men's 800-meter run.
The three, alongside freshman Longins Kouri, will run a leg of the 4X800-meter relay team, which is currently ranked No. 1 in the country with a composite time of 7:39.59.
"I think one of our best chances (at a national title) is our 4X800-meter relay team," Kitchener said. "We have a good contingent there. The school record was set over 30 years ago (1981) by four Kansas kids and we have a chance to break that if we run well."
The current school record in the 4X800-meter relay is 7:42.2 set by Mark Davis, Kelly Bingham, Mark Fliterraft and Phil Lampkins.
Kitchener added that he believes Kouri could be a "surprise" in the men's 800-meter run, where he currently owns the 17th fastest time in the country. Kouri will also take the place of Mosito on Cloud County's distance medley relay team, currently ranked No. 1 in the country, due to Mosito competing in the 5,000 meter event right before the DMR.
The T-Birds' DMR team of Mosito, Dirane, Marindich and Darrien Lipscomb, which shattered the school record earlier this winter (9:59.52), posted the best DMR time in the country last season, but did not run the race at the national meet. That will change this go-around.
"We're going to run the DMR this year. We were ranked No. 1 in the event last year, but decided to have those kids run different events to try and score more points," Kitchener said. "Some of that didn't work out, so this year we'll run the distance medley."
Cloud County will also look to challenge for national championships in a handful of field events as sophomore thrower Vashon McCarthy, fresh off a second-place finish in the men's shot put at the Region VI/KJCCC Championships, is currently ranked No. 3 in the event.
The T-Birds are also optimistic about what its group of jumpers — Peter Ackah, Lesley Mahlakoane, Murphy Bavinga, Johnathan Spearman and Kyle Alcine — can accomplish this weekend.
"It's a really tight pack in the long and triple jumps right now," Kitchener said. "And Kyle should be in the hunt to finish in the top two or three in the high jump, so we're hoping to be able to get some points there."
Alcine reached 7'1'' at the Region VI/KJCCC Championships and is just .75 inches off the current top mark of 7'1.75'' set by Eric Richards of Hinds Community College.
In the long jump, Ackah is ranked No. 7 in the county but there is only 1.5 inches separating him from the No. 2 ranked athlete, Holland Martin, of South Plains.
For the T-Birds to reach their aspirations of being in the mix for individual and a team national title, Kitchener said it will be essential that Cloud County starts the meet off well on Friday during the preliminaries and handful of final events.
"The key for us is going to be getting through Friday's session, hopefully running really well in that DMR, and getting the meet off to a good start," Kitchener said. "We need to get our qualifiers through on Friday to the finals. It's a battle to survive on Friday to get to your races on Saturday."
