Cloud County men, women win team titles

NORTH NEWTON, Kan. – Getting off to a strong start to the 2022 outdoor season with eight national qualifying marks and one school record, the Cloud County Community College women's and men's track teams would sweep the team titles at the 2022 Bethel College Open at Thresher Stadium in North Newton, Kansas on Saturday, March 19th.
 
In the team races, the T-Bird men would post a total of 214 points to outpace the nine-team field as the next closest team would be Tabor College who would finish second with 150 points followed by Butler with 103 points. The women's team race would also be a runaway title for CCCC as Cloud County would finish with 175 points, 65 points better than second-place Bethel College (110 points) who would be followed by Tabor in third with 73 points.
 
Posting the T-Bird school record would be men's freshman Mohamed Ahmed who would unleash an NJCAA-best throw of 61.21 meters (200 ft. – 10 in.) to re-write the record book as the previous record was 52.54 meters (171 ft. – 5 in.) held by Dakota Weber (2014). Cloud County would also get a men's national qualifying mark in the pole vault from freshman Ben Okraska who cleared 4.42 meters (14 ft. – 6 in.) to win the event and give CCCC two national qualifying marks in field events on the day.
 
Also posting men's national qualifying marks for Cloud County would be both Emmanuel Wanga (47.96) and Timothy Nyinguan (48.27) in the 400 meters as Wanga would join Jonathan Dende, Narindra Rafidimalala, and Freider Fornasari to post a qualifying time of 41.14 seconds in the 4x100 meter relay. The T-Birds would also get two national qualifying times from their 4x400 meter relay teams with both the relay team of Elias Rivera, Quwayne Reid, Ceejay Morrison, and Deandre Elliot (3:14.08) and Dende, Shadrick Tansi, Hassan Abidi, and Alphonse Igish would run a time of 3:14.80 to finish in first and third in the 10-team relay race.
 
Wins from both Rafidimalala in the long jump (7.17 meters, 23 ft. – 6.25 in.) and Kidus Misgina in the 3,000 meters (8:50.12) would cap off a day that saw the Cloud County men win six events to go along with seven runner-up finishes with Michael Iyali accounting for two of the runner-up finishes (1,500 meters – 4:05.52, 3,000 meters – 8:53.13). Other runner-up finishes included times of 15.72 in the 110-meter hurdles and 55.82 in the 400-meter hurdles from Davit Lukava to go along a time of 1:56.87 in the 800 meters from Reid, and a mark of 7.14 meters (23 ft. – 5.25 in.) from Nyinguan in the long jump.  
 
All but one mark from the Cloud County women would finish in the top-five as national qualifying marks would come from a one-two finish in the 800 meters from Pamela Milano (2:18.83) and Vimbayi Maisvorewa (2:19.87) to go along with times of 3:53.75 from Passion Crews, Leonie Beu, Milano, and Ludjenie Mondesir in the 4x400 meter relay alongside a time of 3:53.80 from Maisvorewa, Isila Apkup, Vanessa Mercera, and Abigail Fisher as part of a one-two finish in the event. Five other event wins would be had by the T-Bird women as Hollie Stewart (javelin – 34.49 meters, 113 ft – 2 in.), Mercera (long jump – 5.48 meters, 17 ft. – 11.75 in.), Maggie Armstrong in the pole vault (3.05 meters, 10 ft. – 0 in.), Mondesir in the 1,500 meters (5:06.26), and Beu in the 400 meters (56.74 seconds). Both Stewart (discus – 36.39 meters, 119 ft. – 5 in.) and Mercera (100-meter hurdles – 16.62 seconds) would add runner-up finish in a second event on the day while to go along with a runner-up finish from Fisher in the 1,500 meters (5:08.40), Apkup in the 100 meters (12.21) and two runner-up finishes for freshman Mallory Callihan (hammer throw – 39.50 meters, 129 ft. – 7 in, and shot put – 10.86 meters, 35 ft. – 7.75 in.).
 
Finishing out top-three finishes for CCCC would be Tahisha Thompson in both the hammer throw (39.32 meters, 129 ft. – 0 in.) and discus (34.12 meters, 111 ft. – 11 in.) as well as Mia Manley in the pole vault (2.90 meters, 9 ft. – 6.25 in.), Crews in the 800 meters (2:26.02), and Miracle Thompson in the 200 meters (25.78 seconds).