EMPORIA, Kansas — The Cloud County Community College track and field teams each collected top-10 finishes Saturday at the Emporia State University relays, with the men's team coming in fourth with 92 points and the women finishing ninth with 36 points.
Cloud County's men's team was led by its jumpers Saturday as freshman Peter Ackah picked up the T-Birds' event win in the long jump at 24-feet, 8.5 inches and freshman teammate Johnathan Spearman came in sixth (22-08.50).
The duo was strong in the men's triple jump as well as Ackah was third (48-06.25) and Spearman finished 5th (47-06.50), while fellow freshman Murphy Bavinga set a personal record with a national qualifying jump of 48-11 to place second in the event.
Freshman high jumper Kentwan Blackstock and Tristen Winkel added two more top-10 finishes in jumping events as Blackstock placed third in the high jump and Winkel took eighth in the pole vault.
The men's team received quality performance from its distance runners as sophomore Stephen Marindich was the runner-up in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:55.79.
Fellow sophomores Moses Dirane and Thobile Mosito finished third and fifth, respectively, in the men's 1,500-meter run with times of 3:37.87 and 4:03.48.
Dirane also helped the Cloud County men's 4X800-meter relay team, running with Longins Kouri, Tanner Brown and Omari Miller, to a third place finish (8:06.00).
Out in the throwing events, the T-Birds had two athletes punch their tickets to the national meet as freshman Levi Armon earned his best finish of the outdoor season, finishing with a qualifying throw of 47-10. Jerrod Hoover also earned his way to nationals with a 10th place finish in the men's javelin after posting a mark of 171-05.
Sophomore thrower Vashon McCarthy, already a national qualifier, continued his strong season with a third-place finish in the discus event (48-03).
Cloud County thrived in the throwing events on the women's side, as well, as sophomore Gabbreil Harris picked up two runner-up finishes Saturday in the discus and hammer events.
Harris reach 155-09 in the discus, ahead of freshman teammate Avi Bulai (145-02) in fifth place, and made a toss of 169-03 in the hammer throw. Bulai joined Harris in the top-10 again in the hammer, finishing sixth with a mark of 154-05.
Freshman thrower Takrya Hilton handled the shot put event for the T-Birds, earning sixth place with a throw of 42-06.
Sophomore distance runner Ariel St. John and freshman Nikki Kraaijeveld rounded out the other top women's finishers for Cloud County as St. John crossed the finish line third in the 800-meter run (2:19.32) and Kraaijeveld took fifth in the 100-meter hurdles (15.05).
For the men, Robson Yinambe provided some highlights for the T-Birds as he finished sixth in the 110-meter hurdles (15.14), just in front of teammate Louis Humbert (15.21), and added another sixth-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles (49.49).
The Cloud County men's 4X100-meter relay team of Humbert, Brown, Jacob Koelzer and Darrien Lipscomb posted a sixth-place finish of their own, as well, with a time of 42.73.
Up next for Cloud County will be the Cowley Multis, scheduled for this upcoming Wednesday and Thursday in Arkansas City, Kansas before the T-Birds head off to the Butler County Invite on Saturday.
