Cloud County Track Teams Have Three National Runner-Up Finishes on Day One of NJCAA Championships
Posting three individual national runner-up finishes and seven top-eight finishes, the Cloud County Community College women's and men's track and field teams both sit inside the top-12 of their respective team races following day one of the 2023 NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships held inside the Washburn University Indoor Athletic Facility in Topeka, Kansas on Friday, March 3rd.
Through seven scored events in both the women's and men's team standings, the T-Bird women currently sit in third and are just seven points back of day one leader Barton Community College after scoring 31 points in the seven events scored while the CCCC men posted nine total points on the day to sit in 11th in a team race that sees five Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference schools sit inside the top-11.
A pair of national runner-up finishes for the Cloud County women would account for 16 of CCCC's 31 points on Friday with Vanessa Mercera taking national runner-up in the pentathlon after posting top marks in the multi-event competition in both the high jump (1.72 meters, 5 ft. – 7.75 in.) and the 800 meters (2:21.15). Following the five events in the pentathlon, Mercera would finish with a total of 3,817 points to trail only Ana Couto of Barton who would win the event with 3,945 total points. The other national runner-up finish on the women's side would come from Lucy Ndungu in the 5,000 meters after running a time of 17:47.44 to finish just six seconds back of the national-title winning time of 17:41.54. Ndungu would also place third in the 3,000 meters by running a time of 10:10.23 to finish the day with 14 total points for the T-Birds.
Remaining points scored by the Cloud County women on Friday would come in the pole vault as both Mia Manley (3.30 meters, 10 ft. – 10 in.) and Jasmine Sakaguchi (3.15 meters, 10 ft. – 4 in.) would place in fourth and fifth for nine total points towards the CCCC team score. Setting up for what could be a big scoring day in the final day action on Saturday, CCCC would see preliminary qualifying times run by Miracle Thompson in both the 60-meter hurdles (8.27 seconds) and 60-meter dash (7.47 seconds) along with Vimbayi Maisvorewa in the 400 meters (54.56 seconds), Mercera in the 600 meters (1:36.46), Passion Crews in the 800 meters (2:18.36) and Melody Ochana in the 1,000 meters (3:05.01). Of the qualifying times, both Thompson in the 60-meter hurdles and Maisvorewa in the 400-meters would post the top qualifying time while times from Thompson, Mercera, and Crews would all rank inside the top four of the preliminary rounds.
On the men's side, action in scored events would be much more limited with the day being highlighted by a national runner-up finish from Ben Okraska in the pole vault by clearing 4.68 meters (15 ft. – 4.25 in.) while finishing as one of just nine athletes that qualified to post a mark in the event. The lone other point scored by Cloud County would come from the distance medley relay team consisting of Raziel Patton, Shadrick Tansi, Quwayne Reid, and Siyabonga Mokgothu as a time of 10:16.14 would lead to an eighth-place finish out of 16 teams that competed in the event.
In other action on Friday by the T-Bird men, the trio of Hemon Joseph (2,788 points), Anson Moses (2,769 points), and Ricard Smith (2,730 points) would all sit inside the top six of the heptathlon after four events in the multi-event competition as all three are currently less than 200 points behind day-one leader Aries Scott of Iowa Central CC. CCCC would also have Emmanuel Wanga post the seventh-best time in the 400-meter preliminary round to advance to Saturday's final along with a third-place preliminary finish in the 600 meters to advance to the finals alongside teammate Hassan Abidi who ran the fifth-fastest 600-meter preliminary time (1:19.74).
What's Next?
The 2023 NJCAA Indoor Track and Field season will officially come to a close on Saturday, March 4th as final day action will see the T-Birds look to improve their team scores. With still 13 events yet to be scored, CCCC will look to pick up points in some of their better events with the men still awaiting the conclusion of the heptathlon along with the weight throw with top-ranked Mohamed Ahmed while the Cloud County women will look towards both sprints and relays to make up a majority of their day two points.