EL DORADO, Kansas — Consistency and versatility is the name of the game in the women's heptathlon. And over the past 48 hours, Cloud County Community College freshman Nikki Kraaijeveld did so at an elite level as the Netherlands native finished as the national runner-up to highlight Day Two of the NJCAAA DI Outdoor Track and Field Champions for the T-Birds.
Kraaijeveld entered the national meet as the No. 5 seed, and was sitting in fourth and 10 points back of second through Thurday's first four events before pulling into the runner-up spot Friday with a sixth-place finish in the long jump (15'10.5), 11th-place finish in the javelin (74'3), and fifth-place finish in the 800-meter finale (2:33.67).
She finished with a total of 4090 points, edging out South Plains' Bosibori Mosongo in third place (4085).
Kraaijeveld was one of two national runner-up finishes by the Cloud County track and field teams on Friday as sophomore Moses Dirane placed second in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Dirane, the defending national champion in the event, beat his time from a season ago by .33 seconds as he crossed the finish line in 9:18.66.
Fellow sophomore Thobile Mosito, the winner of Thursday's 10,000-meter final, was right behind Dirane for the second straight season as he placed third in 9:26.76.
Dirane will get another chance to hunt a national championship on Saturday as he ran the third fastest preliminary time in Friday's 1,500 meter preliminaries of 4:02.85.
Cloud County added two additional podium appearances on the afternoon as sophomore Robson Yinambe took home fifth in the men's decathlon, finishing with a point total of 6080.
Freshman high jumper Kyle Alcine earned sixth place (6'9.75) in his first taste of the national meet.
In other action on Friday, the Cloud County men's 4X400-meter relay team of Darrien Lipscomb, Wesley Logorava, Lesley Mahlakoane and Stephen Marindich punched their tickets to Saturday's final with the seventh fastest time (3:12.85) in the preliminaries.
Marindich and sophomore Ariel St. John each qualified for the finals in their respective 800-meter events as Marindich (1:52.89) and St. John (2:17.93) head in as No. 5 seeds.
Sophomore sprinter Jatoria McGirt, national champion of the women's indoor 100-meter dash, is on to Saturday's finals after posting the fifth fastest prelim time of 11.77 seconds.
The T-Birds also received a 10th-place finish from their women's 4X400-meter relay team (Ageonia Wilkerson, Myflore Methelus, Ariel St. John and Kraaijeveld), as well as a 13th-place finish by freshman Levi Armon in the men's shot put (46'1.50) and 17th-place finish by Thandeka Manzana in the women's steeplechase (12:45.26) to round out Friday's top finishers.
Through the first two days, the Cloud County men's team sits in third place overall with a team score of 42 points. The T-Birds are four points back of Region VI rival Barton, which leads the national meet at 46 points through nine scored events. The T-Birds' women's team will enter Saturday in fifth place with 23 points.
Cloud County will be back in action at 10 a.m. Saturday when the final day of the 2018 NJCAA DI Outdoor Track and Field Championships begins with the men's javelin and women's discus finals. Running events get underway at 12:30 p.m.
