Day One Results
PITTSBURG, Kan. – With seven events scored in both the women's and men's races of the 2022 NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, the Cloud County Community College track and field teams would be led by a trio of third-place finishes to highlight day one of action at the Robert W. Plaster Center in Pittsburg, Kansas on Friday, March 4th.
Following the conclusion of day one's action, the CCCC women sit in third place in the team scoring with 28 total points while the men are in 11th place with eight total points scored on Friday. In the women's race, Cloud County trails only reigning National Champion Iowa Western (58 points) and New Mexico Junior College (34 points) as both teams entered the weekend ahead of the T-Birds in the team rankings.
The eight team points scored by the CCCC men would come from a fourth-place finish in the pole vault by
Ben Okraska (4.28 meters, 14 ft. – 0.5 in.) and a fifth-place finish from
Timothy Nyinguan in the long jump (7.38 meters, 24 ft. – 2.5 in.). Other key performances from the Cloud County men on Friday would feature Nyinguan (1:18.20) and
Emmanuel Wanga (1:19.73) both qualifying for Saturday's final in the 600 meters. Nyinguan's time would run the second-fastest time in the preliminary rounds while Wanga ran the seventh-fastest time. Wanga would just miss out on qualifying for the 400-meter finals on Saturday, placing 11th with a time of 48.56 seconds and finishing .28 seconds out of the top-10 qualifying times. Reigning National Champion
Andrew Betton would also get his weekend started on Friday, taking part in the heptathlon alongside teammates
Anson Moses and
Elias Rivera as Betton would post the top mark in the high jump (2.03 meters, 6 ft. – 8 in.) The multi-event competition will conclude on Saturday, with the 60-meter hurdles, pole vault, and 1,000 meters still to take place to crown a National Champion.
As for the CCCC women, the T-Birds would open the day with a third-place finish from
Vanessa Mercera in the pentathlon as the freshman would score 3,375 points to break the school-record which was held by Jennifer Thalmann (3,357 points, 1993) and included the top-time in the 800 meters (2:27.09) and the second-best mark in the high jump (1.64 meters, 5 ft. – 4.5 in.). Once the running events kicked off,
Passion Crews,
Vimbayi Maisvorewa,
Melody Ochana, and
Ludjenie Mondesir would help Cloud County to a third-place finish in the distance medley relay with a time of 12:24.35 for the second of three third-place finishes by the T-Bird women. Also finishing with a bronze on Friday would be sophomore
Hollie Stewart after throwing a career-mark of 13.77 meters (45 ft. – 2.25 in.) in the shot put as the three scores would account for 18 of the 28 total points scored by CCCC. The remaining 10 points would come from a fourth-place finish from Frankfort, Kansas native
Maggie Armstrong in the pole vault (3.15 meters, 10 ft. – 4 in.) and
Lucy Ndungu in the 5,000 meters (fourth, 18:18.18).
Qualifying times for Saturday's finals would be run by
Miracle Thompson (60 meters, 7.58 seconds and 60-meter hurdles, school-record time of 8.42 seconds),
Pamela Milano (600 meters, 1:33.85),
Sicely Jackson (600 meters, 1:37.39), Maisvorewa (400 meters, 54.47 seconds),
Leonie Beu (400 meters, 56.50 seconds), and Crews (800 meters, 2:20.87). All five events should lead to some key points for the T-Birds on Saturday as Cloud County will also have two more relay teams (4x800 relay, 4x400 relay), three field events (high jump, weight throw, and triple jump), and the mile run to try and make up points on both Iowa Western and New Mexico JC.
What's Next?
Tomorrow will conclude the 2022 NJCAA indoor track and field season as 13 more events will be contested on both the women's and men's sides to determine the 2022 National Championship teams. Action is set to get underway once again with the multi-event athletes as the conclusion of the heptathlon will lead into field events followed by the remaining running events.
