Championship Central

COFFEYVILLE, Kan. – Clinging on to a three-point lead heading into the final event of the meet, the Hutchinson Community College men’s track and field team turned in a school-record performance in the 4x400 meter relay to finish runner-up in the event and win their first NJCAA Region 6 Men’s Outdoor Track and Field Championship team title since 2013 inside Veterans Memorial Stadium in Coffeyville, Kansas.  

Outscoring 14 other Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference schools, the Blue Dragons finished the meet with 135 points to edge out Barton Community College who finished as Region 6 Runners-Up with 127 points and well ahead of third-place Coffeyville who finished with 84 points. Fourth place was earned with 73 points by Cloud County as the rest of the top eight saw Cowley (54 points) take fifth, Garden City (52 points) take sixth, and both Butler and Highland tie for seventh with 47 points. In the KJCCC West Division scoring, Hutchinson took a slightly larger win over Barton by finishing with 185.5 points compared to 157.5 points for the Cougars while Cloud County took third with 109 total team points. The KJCCC East Division crown was won by Coffeyville who eclipsed the 200-point mark with 200.5 points with Cowley (141 points) finishing second and Highland (109 points) taking third.  

In a true team effort for Hutchinson, the Blue Dragons scored points in 21 of 22 different events across the three-day meet with five events having multiple HCC athletes score points to go along with four individual Region 6 Champions. Setting a school record with the number two time in the NJCAA this season was Kebba Makalo in the 100-meter dash while Leo LeGrand won the 800 meters with a time of 1:53.39. Also earning NJCAA Region 6 individual championships this past weekend for Hutchinson was defending NJCAA 400-meter hurdle National Champion David Thid with a time of 51.91 while Ty’Rique Roland earned the lone field event championship for the Blue Dragons with a high jump win after clearing 2.07 meters (6 feet, 9.5 inches).

Both Barton and Colby had Athletes of the Meet for their performances across the weekend as Cougar athletes Ricardo Hayles (Men’s Field Athlete of the Meet) and Trevon Hamer (Men’s High Point Athlete of the Meet) were joined by Colby’s Sibonelo Khumalo who was named Men’s Track Athlete of the Meet. KJCCC Coaching honors were earned by Coffeyville’s Robert Wood who was named KJCCC Men’s Head Coach of the Year and Red Raven Assistant Coach Tre Lathan who was named KJCCC Assistant Men’s Coach of the Year.