Cloud County Women's Track and Field Team Wins 4th Straight NJCAA Region VI Title
Holding a 16-point lead in the team race heading into the final day of the 2022 Region VI Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the Cloud County Community College women's track and field team would make sure that the recent run of Region VI Championships won by the T-Birds would not come to a close this year by pulling away for their fourth-consecutive Region VI track and field title at Broncbuster Stadium in Garden City Kansas on Saturday, May 7th.
Adding three more individual Region VI Champions to their total in final day action, CCCC would finish with 200 points to outpace runner-up Barton who finished with 178 points. Cowley would finish a very distant third in the team standings with 83 total points with Fort Scott (71 points) and Colby (67 points) rounding out the top-five team scoring.
Of the 31 performances that were put together by Cloud County across a total of 17 events on Saturday, 25 would lead to points in the team race for the T-Birds which was highlighted by Region VI Championship performances from Maggie Armstrong in the pole vault (3.31 meters, 10 ft. – 10.25 in.), Miracle Thompson in the 100-meter hurdles (13.22 seconds), and Vimbayi Maisvorewa in the 400 meters (54.38 seconds). The time run by Thompson would break her own school record set earlier this year as all three student-athletes now rank in the top four of their respective event on the 2022 NJCAA performance list.
In addition to the Region VI Championship performances, CCCC would get Region VI runner-up marks from Faithlyn Irving in the triple jump (12.15 meters, 39 ft. – 10.5 in.), Ludjenie Mondesir in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (12:15.45), Abigail Fisher in the 1,500 meters (5:06.95), Pamela Milano in the 800 meters (2:16.49), and both the 4x100 meter relay team (Thompson, Leonie Beu, Isila Apkup, and Maisvorewa – school-record time of 46.03 seconds) and the 4x400 meter relay team (Beu, Maisvorewa, Passion Crews, and Milano – 3:47.21). Also earning podium finishes alongside their teammates with third-place finishes on Saturday would be freshman Mia Manley in the pole vault (3.16 meters, 10 ft. – 4.25 in.), Lucy Ndungu in the 1,500 meters (5:08.60), and Crews in the 800 meters (2:22.92).
Other top-five finishes by Cloud County on Saturday include a fifth-place finish in the shot put from Hollie Stewart (13.00 meters, 42 ft. – 8 in.) a day winning a Region VI Title in the javelin while track events would see fourth-place finishes from Apkup (100 meters, 11.69 seconds), Maisvorewa (200 meters – school-record time of 23.65 seconds), Fisher (800 meters – 2:22.95), Vanessa Mercera (400-meter hurdles – 1:05.95), and Mondesir (5,000 meters – 19:41.17). Ndungu would also earn a fifth-place finish in the 5,000 meters to go along with her third-place finish in the 1,500 meters and 10,000-meter Region VI Championship performance Friday night to help the T-Birds by scoring a total of 18 points.
What's Next?
Following a week off from competition to finish off the academic portion of the spring 2022 semester, Cloud County will return to action for one final meet as the 2022 NJCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be held at Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas May 19-21. In the past two NJCAA Outdoor Track National Championship Meets held in 2019 and again in 2021, CCCC took home finishes of seventh and sixth while placing third at each of the last two NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship meets. The T-Birds currently have 33 times/marks that have qualified for the 2022 National Championship Meet.