Cloud County Track Throwers Earn Nine Top-Eight Finishes at Alex Francis Classic
With throwing events accounting for all but one official mark on Wednesday, the Cloud County Community College track and field teams earned 10 top-eight finishes to open their week at the 2024 Fort Hays State University Alex Francis Classic at the FHSU Track and Field Facility in Hays, Kansas on Wednesday, April 24th.
With eight student-athletes competing across seven events, CCCC had top-eight finishes in each of the events that they had entries in with two events having multiple top-eight finishes. The lone non-throwing event mark came in the pole vault with Skylar McFarling taking eighth after clearing 3.93 meters with three third-place finishes highlighting the rest of the top-eight marks for the T-Bird men. Andre Smikle had two of the three third-place finishes after taking third in the shot put (14.19 meters, 46 ft. - 6.75 in.) and discus (49.38 meters, 162 ft. - 0 in.) with Josh Shelly accounting for the other top-three mark with a throw of 50.34 meters (165 ft. -2 in.) in the hammer throw. Joining Smikle in the shot put with a sixth-place finish was Josh Deiter (13.49 meters, 44 ft. - 3.25 in.) while Lucas Kenney took seventh with a mark of 13.38 meters (43 ft. - 10.75 in.).
In the women's events, Cloud County had four student-athletes compete on Wednesday and was led by Tamara Thompson who earned second-place finishes in both the discus (52.13 meters, 171 ft. - 0 in.) and hammer throw (51.30 meters, 168 ft. - 4 in.). the remaining top-eight finishes for CCCC came in the hammer throw with Margherita Sala taking sixth (47.13 meters, 154 ft. - 7 in.0 and Emery May placing sixth in the javelin (35.76 meters, 117 ft. - 4 in.).
What's Next?
Following an off day on Thursday, the rest of the T-Bird track teams are scheduled to pick up action on Friday afternoon when CCCC heads to Manhattan, Kansas to take part in the Kansas State University Ward Haylett Invitational. Taking place at the R.V. Christian Track and Field Complex, Cloud County will be joined by Kansas State, the University of Missouri, Wichita State University, and Missouri State University in the five-team meet which is scheduled to begin at 12 PM on Friday, April 26th and resume finish up with day two action beginning at 11 AM on Saturday, April 27th.