Cowley track teams place eighth at nationals

Kelsey Poljansek and David Starnes took different paths on their way to the NJCAA Indoor Championships.

Poljansek has been the model of consistency in the shot put. She dominated in the shot put all season, breaking her own school record twice. She won the event at four meets — including being crowned Jayhawk Conference and Region VI champion last month in Manhattan — and placed no lower than sixth.

Starnes, meanwhile, suffered a hamstring injury shortly after the first meet of the season. That limited him to competing at only two meets this season — KU Invite (Jan. 25) and Adidas Classic (Feb. 8). Both times, he found a way to qualify for the national meet.

Even with Starnes qualified for nationals, coach Mark Phillips didn’t even know how well Starnes was going to fare at the national meet last weekend in Charleston, Ill.

“We had our fingers crossed, but he made bars when everybody else was struggling and pulled one out,” Phillips said.

He did, and both him and Poljansek walked away national champions. Starnes cleared a height of 15 feet, 0.75 inches to win the pole vault title. Poljansek threw for a distance of 47 feet, 0.25 inches to win the shot put.

“That just capped off her year,” Phillips said. “She’s just one of those kids that you can’t say enough about because she works so hard.”

Added Phillips: “With Kelsey, she kept throwing better and better,” Phillips said. “With David, we had just spent the whole indoor season on trying to find a way to get him healthy.”

Both the Cowley men and women’s teams finished eight in the team standings — exactly where Phillips expected them to finish, the men accumulating 36 points and the women 33.5.

“We knew going in, we knew that we weren’t going to be where we were last year,” he said. “Pretty much everybody I talked, I said that we’re pointing to the top eight. I knew that there were six or seven schools that were better than us.

“I thought that if we were in the top eight, I’d pleased with our performance and I was very pleased with our performance.”

The Tigers broke several school records at the national meet: John Kenney (6.99 seconds) in the men’s 60-meter dash, Jonathan Cherono (14:45.85) in the men’s 5,000-meter run, the men’s 4x800 relay team (7:52.62), Jessica McLeod (3:05.59) in the women’s 1,000-meter run and the women’s 4x800-meter relay team (9:54.76).

Cowley results:
MEN
•60-meter dash finals: 19. John Kenney, 6.99.
•200-meter dash finals: 35. Kenney, 23.24.
•600-meter run finals: 11. Justin Viewins, 1:22.78.
•800-meter run finals: 9. Larry Hill, 1:57.45; 16. Dakota Price, 1:59.39; 25. Matt Silovsky, 2:04.76.
•1,000-meter run finals: 10. Harrison Philip, 235.11; 21. Rolando Vasquez, 2:40.18.
•1-mile run: 11. Mauricio Morales, 4:23.87; 19. Nate Newland, 4:44.14.
•3,000-meter run: 3. Jonathan Cherono, 8:36.54; 12. Mauricio Morales, 8:58.23; 20. Brett Koehn, 9:17.09.
•5,000-meter run: 4. Jonathan Cherono, 14:45.85; 11. Brett Koehn, 15:38.57; 13. Justin Cacaro, 15:45.63.
•4x400-meter relay: 6. Cowley (Larry Hill, Deion Ruble, Dakota Price, Justin Viewins), 3:23.57.
•4x800-meter relay: 4. Cowley (Harrison Philip, Larry Hill, Matt Silovsky, Dakota Price), 7:52.62.
•Men’s distance medley relay: 10. Cowley (Philip, Ruble, Silovsky, Gilbert Manzanares), 10:41.09.
•Pole vault: 1. David Starnes, 15-0.75, national champion, NJCAA first team All-American; 4. Jordan Pote, 14-6; 7. Willy Lucero, 14-0.

WOMEN
•1,00-meter run finals: 6. Jessica McLeod, 3:07.57.
•1-mile run: 7. McLeod, 5:26.11.
•3,000-meter run: 5. Jeniffer Cherono, 10:41.86; 11. Ashley Cronin, 11:10.31.
•5,000-meter run: 7. Cherono, 18:39.65; 8. Cronin, 19:00.91.
•4x800-meter relay: 3. Cowley (McLeod, Janee Gabbard, Cronin, Cherono), 9:54.76.
•Distance medley relay: 5. Cowley (Gabbard, Anna German, McLeod, Christy Buller), 13:21.85.
•Pole vault: 8. German, 8-10.25.
•Shot put: 1. Kelsey Poljansek, 47-0.25, national champion, NJCAA All-American.
•Weight throw: 8. Poljansek, 45-8.50.

By DAVID WOLMAN
Traveler Sports Editor