LAWRENCE, Kansas — The Cloud County Community College track and field teams collected a pair of event wins and 14 top-5 finishes over the last three days at the 91st Kansas Relays, ran Thursday through Saturday, in Lawrence.
Cloud County sophomore standouts Gabbreil Harris and Thobile Mosito each earned their ways on top of the podium as Harris won the women's discus event with a throw of 161-feet, six inches.
Harris, currently ranked No. 2 among all NJCAA throwers in the discus and weight throw events, added a third-place finish in the hammer after posting a mark of 166'6''.
Mosito's victory came between the lanes of Rock Chalk Park as he cruised to a win in the men's 5,000-meter run, topping Missouri Southern's Nickson Kiptoo and Josh Webb by more than six seconds with a winning time of 14:42.51.
The Cloud County track teams did the bulk of its damage down in Lawrence in the relay events as five different relay teams posted top-5 marks.
Cloud County's men's distance medley relay team of Mosito, sophomores Stephen Marindich and Moses Dirane, and freshman Lesley Mahlakoane were runners up in the event with a time of 10:17.94.
The T-Birds added second-place finishes in the men's 4X400-meter relay (Mahlakoane, Robson Yinambe, Tanner Brown and Darrien Lipscomb) and 4X800-meter relay (Dirane, Marindich, Longins Kouri and Omari Miller), as well, crossing the finish line with times of 3:17.12 and 7:46.61, respectively.
Cloud County would also tally third-place finishes in the men's and women's 4X100-meter relay races.
The women's team of Ageonia Wilkerson, Precious Posey, Jatoria McGirt and Methelus Myflore finished with a time of 48.80, while the men's team of Lipscomb, Brown, Jacob Koelzer and Wesley Logorava came in a 42.42.
Sophomore middle distance runners Ariel St. John and Marindich continued their tremendous seasons in their respective 800-meter run events, with Marindich placing third overall with a time of 1:52.19 and St. John taking fourth in the women's event in 2:16.62.
Both Marindich and St. John currently rank No. 7 in the country among NJCAA runners in the event.
Freshman thrower Shanee Angol provided another bright spot for the Cloud County women's team as, a week after winning the javelin event at the Bethel College Invitational, she took home a fourth-place finish (136'07'').
On the men's side, a trio of jumpers — Kyle Alcine, Peter Ackah and Murphy Bavinga — rounded out the T-Birds' top performers as Ackah placed second in the long jump (23'11.75''), while Bavinga and Alcine each earned fourth-place finishes in the triple jump (48'9'') and high jump (6'6.75''), respectively.
Up next, the Cloud County track and field teams will get one final tune-up before the Region VI/KJCCC Championships when they head off to the rescheduled Butler County Invite, set for this Wednesday in El Dorado.
