Cloud County 4x800 Relay Teams Break School-Records On First Day of the NJCAA Outdoor Championships

Two school record performances and a national title highlighted the opening day of action for the Cloud County Community College track and field teams at the 2024 NJCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Brown Stadium in Monroe, Louisiana on Thursday, May 16th.
With five of 22 events scored on the women's side, the Cloud County women lead 24 teams who have scored thus far with a total of 22 points to be ahead of second-place New Mexico Junior College (20.5 points) and third-place Barton (17.5 points). In the men's scoring, 17 teams have scored through four events with the T-Bird men in eighth place with eight points while trailing Barton (24 points), Indian Hills (19 points), Colby (18 points), Iowa Western (17 points), New Mexico Junior College (16 points), South Plains (11points), and Merdian Community College (9 points).
Concluding what has already been a historic season in the 4x800 relay, a school-record performance and national championship time of 9:06.43 from Ozia Trujillo, N Vanee Anchike, Mercy Angaamchaab, and Nontokozo Ncube was the biggest performance of the day from the CCCC women to post the eighth-fastest time in NJCAA history after previously running the fourth-fastest time in NJCAA history earlier this season. Two third-place finishes in field events also provided points for Cloud County in the women's scoring with Tamara Thompson uncorking a throw of 50.27 meters (164 ft. – 11 in.) in the hammer throw to place third out of 25 athletes while Jasmine Sakaguchi cleared 3.62 meters (11 ft. – 10.5 in.) in the pole vault to take third out of 20 competitors. Just missing out on points in the pole vault was Bradie Medina after clearing 3.27 meters (10 ft. – 8.75 in.) to place 10th to account for the only other top-10 finish in the four events that CCCC had athletes competing in.
In the men's competition, the 4x800 relay team of Ishmael Acheampong, Kamogelo Thipe, Siyabonga Mokgothu, and Nichalas Power accounted for the eight-team points scored by running a school-record time of 7:30.89 to finish national runners-up as the T-Birds had competitors in just two scored events on the opening day. Other action from the CCCC men saw Ifeanyichukwu Aninze take part in the 400-meter hurdle preliminaries and run a qualifying time of 53.39 seconds to advance to Saturday's finals while the decathlon saw both Kevin Brooks and Brandon Hutchinson put up some big numbers to put themselves in position to score points on Friday with the conclusion of the multi-events. Brooks won the 100 meters (10.61 seconds) and 400 meters (47.84 seconds) of the decathlon while Hutchinson had the best mark in the long jump (7.22 meters, 23 ft. 8.25 in.) of the 16 competitors in the field while adding a third-place finish int eh 100 meters (11.05 seconds) as the duo currently sit in first (Brooks – 3,835 points) and sixth (Hutchinson – 3,530 points).
What's Next?
Action in Monroe resumes at 9 AM this morning with the conclusion of the multi-event competitions with additional events getting underway at 11 AM. Another six events in both the women's and men's team scoring will be completed on Friday along with preliminary races for numerous track events to set up final day competition on Saturday.