CCCC men win first Region 6 title

PITTSBURG — Recording six event wins, two each by Santino Kenyi and Louis Humbert, the Cloud County Community College men’s track and field team captured its first Region 6 Indoor Championships title.
Cloud County scored 172.5 points to claim the championship. Barton Community College was second with 155 points and Coffeyville was third with 145.5.
“The conference is a lot different than it used to be,” Cloud County coach Harry Kitchener, who was named the Region 6 men’s coach of the year for the fifth time, said, “It’s exciting we were able to do it, and were able to form a team that has the talent to compete at that level. It’s a nice win for the guys and we’re glad to achieve it after knocking on the door a lot of times finishing second.”
The Cloud County women picked up first-place finishes in four events on its way to placing second in the meet with 120 points.
Barton won the meet, hosted by Pittsburg State University, with 174 points. Colby was third with 115.
“I thought we performed very well. Everybody came and either set personal bests this weekend or were right near their personal bests. I was very pleased with the effort and results,” Cloud County women’s coach Ted Schmitz said.
The Cloud County men had Kenyi, a freshman distance runner, win the mile run in 4:22.95 and the 5,000-meter run in 14:47.81.
Kenyl led a sweep in the mile. Dennis Kiptoo was second (4:23.60) and Kwanele Mthembu was third (4:26.37).
Kiptoo placed second in the 5,000 (14:50.96) and Mthembu was fourth (15:09.53).
Humbert established new school records in each of the two events he won.
Scoring 5,004 points, Humbert placed first in the pentathlon. That easily bested the old school record of 3,836 points set by Justin Robinson back in 1999.
Humbert cleared a school recored 15-7 1/4 to win the pole vault. He bettered the old record of 15-7 set in 2017 by Chance Chrisman.
“Louis was really, really incredible and held together very well,” Kitchener said, “He’s battled a hamstring much of the year and we really hadn’t vault him in any other meets until this weekend. He just hit some really big marks.”
Cloud County’s Tanner Brown finished fourth in the pentathlon with 4,417 points.
Jaycob Vargas placed fourth in the pole vault (13-3 1/2) and Caleb Henry was sixth (12-9 1/2).
Sophomore Lesley Mahlakoane turned in a time of 48:29 to capture first place in the 400-meter dash.
Cloud County’s distance medley relay team of Marco Joseph, Ablel Gebreselase, Saba Khvichava and Gabriel Chinya finished first in 10:13.28. That is the second fastest time in the NJCAA this season behind the Cloud County foursome of Mahlakoane, Kenyi, Kiptoo and Khvichava.
“The biggest surprise of the meet was winning the distance medley relay with our B-team on Friday,” Kitchener said, “It was really exciting for me to see those guys come out of nowhere and run one of the best times in the country and see some of those freshmen come through.”
Sophomore Peter Ackah placed third in the long jump (24-9) and fourth in the triple jump (50-1 1/4) for Cloud County.
Kyle Acline tied for third place in the high jump (6-6 3/4).
Jonathan Spearman was sixth in the high jump (6-2 3/4) and seventh in the triple jump (48-8 3/4).
Cloud County’s 4x800 relay team of Chinya, Gebreselase, Thom Reynders and Stephen Holland finished third (7:56.36).
Khvichava placed fourth in the 800-meter run (1:56.16).
Gebreselase was fourth in the 1,000-meter run (2:32.24). Chinya was seventh (2:33.94).
Levi Armor was sixth in the shot put (48-4 1/2) and seventh in the weight throw (50-5 1/4). He qualified for the NJCAA Indoor Championships in both.
Sten Sepp placed sixth in the 600-meter run (1:21.06).
Sepp also ran with Joseph, Brown and Stephen Holland on the 4x400 relay team that finished sixth (3:21.23).
Freshman jumper Grace Chinonyelum picked up two of the Cloud County women’s four first-place finishes, broke the meet record and her own school record in the triple jump and was named the Region 6 High Point Athlete of the Meet.
Chinonyelum went 42-9 1/2 to place first in the triple jump. That broke the meet record of 42-1/2 and her school mark of 42-1 1/2. She also cleared 5-4 1/2 to place first in the high jump and was fourth in long jump (18-4 1/2).
“When you set a record in this region, you’ve done something pretty special,” Schmitz said, “Those are some very big marks. She prepared very well and had a good week of practice leading up to this, and hopefully we’ll continue to see bigger jumps at nationals.”
Freshman Jacqueline Pokuaah won the long with a school record leap of 20-7.
Jessica Williams, a freshman from Concordia, cleared 11-7 3/4 to place first in the pole vault for the Thunderbirds. She was also seventh in the high jump (5-1 1/4). Semaj McGhee was third (5-3 1/4).
Deya Erickson ran 8.48 to finish second in the 60-meter hurdles. Pokuaah was third (8.85).
Takyra Hilton threw 43-10 1/2 to place third in the shot put.
Jatoria McGirt placed fourth in the 60-meter dash (7.58) and the 200 (25.07).
Cloud County’s 4x400 relay team of Erickson, Shackera Samuels, Chanice Forbes and Kenisha Stubbs finished fourth (4:00.89).
McGhee placed fourth in the pentathlon (2,564) and Maryse Mbenoun was fifth (2,413).
Tanya Harcum, Agnetta Chumoh, Sadie Jones and Janne Hamisi finished fifth in the 4x800 relay (10:58.79).
Hamisi was sixth in the 800-meter run (2:31.81).
Forbes placed sixth in the 400-meter dash (59.43).
The national meet is scheduled for March 1-2 at Pittsburg.