Results

PITTSBURG, KAN. – After six scored events in the women's meet and five scored events in the men's meet, the Cloud County Community College women's track and field team holds a 26-point lead following day one of the 2024 NJCAA Region VI Indoor Track and Field Championships while the men's team sits in seventh place at the Robert W. Plaster Center in Pittsburg, Kansas on Saturday, February 17th.
 
The CCCC women totaled 61 points in the first day of action of the two-day meet to run out ahead of second-place team Barton (35 points) and third-place Cowley (25 points) while the men scored 14 points in the five events that have been completed to sit two points ahead of Butler in eighth while trailing sixth-place Coffeyville who has 18 points. The day-one leader in the men's race is Barton with 32 points just ahead of Colby (31) while Hutchinson (27), Cowley (24), and Garden City (19) round out the top five in the team scoring.
 
For the Cloud County women, two events accounted for 37 of their 61 points scored as the heptathlon saw Cordaelia Williams finish as the first of three NJCAA Region VI individual champions on Saturday for the T-Birds after finishing in the top five of four of the five events in the multi-event to total a season-best 2,957 points to win the event by 19 points over Joana Vakasobuduru of Neosho to record the eighth-best pentathlon score in the NJCAA this season. Shackala Henry took fifth in the event after winning the high jump portion of the event with a mark of 1.62 meters (5 ft. – 3.75 in.) and placing second in the shot put (9.57 meters, 31 ft. – 4.75 in.) while Mariem Soltani took sixth with 2,633 points.
 
A trio of top-five finishers in the pole vault also proved to be big for Cloud County on Saturday as Jasmine Sakaguchi improved upon her personal-best indoor mark by clearing 3.66 meters (12 ft. – 0 in.) to win the event by nearly a full foot while Elizabeth Dunham improved her best mark of the season by clearing 3.26 meters (10 ft. – 8.25 in.) to take third. Bradie Medina finished out the scoring in the event for CCCC by clearing 3.16 meters (10 ft. – 4.5 in.) as part of a fifth-place finish in her first Region VI Championship event of her career.
 
The third and final individual Region VI Championship performance by a T-Bird on Saturday came courtesy of N Vanee Anchike in the 5,000 meters as a school-record time of 17:21.61 proved to be over a minute faster than the NJCAA Region VI runner-up time posted in the event. Anchike's time broke a 19-year-old record by Jolene Mick who held the previous record with a time of 17:34.32 to earn her second school-record of the year after previously breaking the mile run school-record. Joining Anchike with a fourth-place finish and a national qualifying time of 18:45.90 was Ozia Trujillo in her first of three scheduled events this weekend to score five points toward the CCCC team score.
 
Other point scorers for Cloud County on Saturday included a third-place finish from Adrienne Locke-Garcia in the weight throw (15.65 meters, 51 ft. – 4 in.) while teammate Tamara Thompson recorded a mark of 14.84 meters (49 ft. – 0 in.) to take eighth. Chenessa Davis managed to take seventh in the long jump by recording a mark of 5.46 meters (17 ft. – 11 in.) to finish in the top half of the 19-competitor field as the lone T-Bird in the event. Preliminary races on Saturday saw Davis run a time of 9.14 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles to qualify fourth for Sunday's finals while Rafiatu Nuhu will run in the 200-meter finals after posting the fourth-fastest qualifying time of 24.68 seconds.
 
Despite limited scoring on Saturday in the men's events, plenty of opportunity exists for the T-Birds moving forward as CCCC has all three of their heptathletes currently in the top five of the 22-competitor field including the top score after four events held by Kevin Brooks (2,148 points). Brooks won the 60 meters (6.91 seconds) and placed second in the long jump (6.54 meters, 21 ft. – 5.5 in.) behind only teammate Ifeanyichukwu Aninze (6.57 meters, 21 ft. – 6.75 in.) who is currently fifth in the scoring with 1,977 points while Brandon Hutchinson is in fourth with 1,992 points with three events still to be completed on Sunday.
 
As for scored events on Saturday, the long jump had two top-eight finishers for Cloud County with Lubo Zlatev taking fifth (6.90 meters, 22 ft. – 7.75 in.) and Oageng Mdlela finishing sixth (6.84 meters, 22 ft. – 5.25 in.) while Andre Smikle took seventh in the weight throw with a season-best mark of 15.35 meters (50 ft. – 4 in.). CCCC also got five points in the distance medley relay after having Ishmael Acheampong, Alan Garcia, Andres Young, and Nirmit Dahiya combine for a fourth-place time of 10:15.96.
 
In preliminary races, two T-Bird runners qualified for Sunday's finals in the 60-meter hurdles with Hutchinson running a time of 8.26 seconds and Bradley Nkosi just one one-hundredth of a second back of him with a time of 8.27 seconds as both ran season-bests to finish with the sixth and seventh-fastest preliminary time out of 25 runners. Just missing out on top-eight finishes and scoring opportunities for CCCC included a ninth-place finish from Josh Shelly in the weight throw (15.17 meters, 49 ft. – 9 in.) and Siyabonga Mokgothu in the 5,000 meters (15:20.46).
 
What's Next?
Action will resume at 9 AM on Sunday with the conclusion of the heptathlon before seeing both field events and track events get underway at 10 AM as 14 men's events and 13 women's events are still to be determined. Both live video and live result links can be found at www.cloudtbirds.com.