CCCC men win first Region VI outdoor championship

EL DORADO — Prior to the 2018-19 school year, the Cloud County Community College men's track and field program had came close, but had never been able to win a Region VI/KJCCC championship meet.
The T-Birds changed that narrative back on February 16 when they won the Region VI/KJCCC Indoor Track and Field Championships. On Saturday, they backed it up by putting the final touches on a first-place finish at the Region VI/KJCCC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, scoring 171 points to edge Barton in second place (143) held over the weekend in El Dorado.
"It's a pretty great deal that we were able to repeat after winning the indoor championship, even without some of our stars from the indoor season," said Cloud County head men's coach, Harry Kitchener. "I did always think that we probably had a better outdoor team than indoor because of the longer distance races."
Those distance runners would play a big role in Cloud County's success over the weekend, starting back on Thursday night when freshmen Dennis Kiptoo and Kwanele Mthembu finished first and second, respectively, in the men's 10,000-meter run.
Kiptoo won the event in 30:35.31 while Mthembu was close behind at 30:40.26. Fellow freshman Ablel Gebreselase also scored points in the event, finishing seventh overall (33:41.81).
Cloud County added big point totals in the 5,000-meter run, courtesy of Kiptoo (second, 14:39.32) and Mthembu, (third 15:13.02), the 3,000-meter steeplechase and in the 1,500-meter run.
In the steeplechase, freshman Saba Khvichava finished second overall (9:34.36), while sophomore Thom Reynders (fourth, 9:50.43) and freshman Gabriel Chinya (sixth,, 10:00.74) each podiumed.
As for the 1,500-meter run, a race featuring the top-five nationally qualified athletes in the event, freshman Dais Malebana placed third (3:48.40), Santino Kenyi in fourth (3:49.10) and Kiptoo added a fifth-place finish (3:54.56).
Malebana, Kenyi, Chinya and Khvichava would also add a first-place finish in the 4x800-meter relay, crossing the finish line in 7:37.92
"Our middle distance and distance guys have really, really held together," Kitchener said. "They did very well and we have a lot of depth with that group."
The T-Birds would also add plenty of big-time performances across the complex.
Sophomore Kyle Alcine won the high jump final with a jump of 6-7, fellow sophomore Louis Humbert only needed one attempt to win the pole vault event (14-1), and sophomore sprinter Lesley Mahlakoane delivered a personal record time of 46.95 to win the 400-meter dash.
Placing sixth in that final was sophomore Tanner Brown with his own PR of 47.99. But Brown did the bulk of his damage earlier in the week as he won the men's decathlon with a personal record score of 6,301 points, giving him the third-best mark in the country among NJCAA athletes.
"All this started off with Tanner in the decathlon, going out there Thursday and Friday in not the best of weather and winning," Kitchener said. "He just had a heck of a meet."
Cloud County would also receive strong performances from sophomore Murphy Bavinga in the triple jump, finishing third with a leap of 47-8, while freshman Jaycob Vargas was fourth in the pole vault (13-6), sophomore Jerrod Hoover and freshman Caleb Henry placed sixth (177-9) and seventh in the javelin (150-1); and Marco Joseph (fifth, 54.69) and Sten Sepp (sixth, 54.70) finished back-to-back in the 400-meter hurdles.
"We had a complete team effort," Kitchener said. "We won the KJCCC West championship by a pretty big margin, too, and that's a credit to our Kansas kids. Everyone we brought had a positive influence on the scores for this team."
Cloud County will now get some time to rest up before it heads off the NJCAA National Outdoor Championships set for May 16-18 in Hobbs, New Mexico.