May 11, 2010

Tiger men capture fourth straight outdoor conference title

Getting tremendous performances throughout its roster, the Cowley College men’s track and field team won its fourth straight outdoor conference title and finished as the runners-up in the region at the Region VI/Jayhawk Conference meet held Thursday through Saturday in Overland Park.
Cowley finished 56 points better than second place Coffeyville (218-162) in the Jayhawk East team standings, while finishing only 22 2/3 points (178-155 1/3) behind Barton County in the region.
“We had a phenomenal performance,” Cowley head coach Mark Phillips said. “On paper we were 50 point underdogs to Barton County going in to the meet. I had no idea we would make it as close as we did.”
The outcome in the region was even closer than the score would indicate as Cowley and Barton County were neck and neck for the top spot in the team standings before the Cougars won the 4x400-meter relay and had three athletes place in the top-four in the discus.
“That really turned the tide for them,” Phillips said.
Cowley sophomore Vondrell Harris was the conference and region champion in the high jump and triple jump. For his efforts, Harris was named the Region VI Male Field Event Athlete of the meet.
“Those were two of the toughest events in the region,” Phillips said. “He handled the wind and the pressure very well.”
Harris’s high jump of 7-1 was a school record.
Mac Griffith had personal best performances in seven of 10 decathlon events and finished as the conference and region champion in the decathlon with a school record 6,451 points.
“For Mac to do that at a championship meet was phenomenal,” Phillips said.
Tiger sophomore Mark Butler cleared 14-9 ½ in the pole vault to finish as the conference and region champion, and Brice Irving (4:00.29) finished one second ahead of teammate Dustin Mettler (4:01.29) to be named the conference and region champion in the 1,500-meter run.
Phillip Banowetz broke the conference record in the 10,000-meter run and was the conference champion in the event with a time of 32:54.30.
Isbek Salinas highlighted some solid performances in the 3,000-meter steeplechase by placing first and breaking the conference record in the event with a time of 9:32.80.
Running his first ever steeplechase, Colin Jokisch placed third in the conference and fourth in the region. While, Cianan Kutil was the conference runner-up and placed third in the region despite competing in just his second ever steeplechase.
Cowley’s 4x800-meter relay team of T.J. Mapp, Brice Irving, David Phillips, and Jory Custar also ran well and finished as the conference and region champions with a time of 8:00.69.
“The distance crew as a whole ran a tremendous meet,” Phillips said.
Due to weather concerns, the Tiger Last Chance meet on Thursday has been cancelled. Cowley will now prepare to compete at the NJCAA National Outdoor championships in Hutchinson May 20-22.
“If we get there healthy I truly believe we can be a top-10 team,” Phillips said. “If we get a couple of breaks like we did this past weekend we could push to be close to that top-five group of teams.”
Results:
*200-meter dash — Tyler Patterson, 22.75, 11th in conference and 21st in region, national qualifier; Adrian Porter, 23.20, 16th in conference and 29th in region, national qualifier.
*400-meter dash — Dylan Filburn, 51.79, seventh in conference and 20th in region, national qualifier; Patterson, 52.45, ninth in conference and 22nd in region, national qualifier; Brandon Sparks, 53.36, 11th in conference and 25th in region, national qualifier.
*800-meter run — Jory Custar, 1:57.66, conference champion and second in region, national qualifier; Thomas Kjerengtroen, 2:00.48, fifth in conference and 11th in region, national qualifier; Dane Dewitt, 2:00.72, sixth in conference and 13th in region.
*1,500-meter run — Brice Irving, 4:00.29, conference and region champion, national qualifier; Dustin Mettler, 4:01.29, second in conference and region, national qualifier; T.J. Mapp, 4:03.88, third in conference and fourth in region, national qualifier.
*5,000-meter run — Mettler, 15:03.20, conference champion and second in region, national qualifier; Josh Gracia, 15:06.63, second in conference and third in region, national qualifier; Phillip Banowetz, 15:15.26, third in the conference and fifth in region, national qualifier.
*10,000-meter run — Banowetz, 32:54.30, conference champion and second in region, conference record and national qualifier; Tyson Christensen, 33:08.07, second in the conference and third in region, national qualifier; Cianin Kutil, 34:13.36, fifth in conference and eighth in region, national qualifier.
*400-meter hurdles — Mac Griffith, 1:00.65, eighth in conference and 17th in region, national qualifier; Kale Hamm, 1:00.91, ninth in conference and 18th in region, national qualifier; Isbek Salinas, 1:03.82, 11th in conference and 23rd in region, national qualifier.
*3,000-meter steeplechase — Salinas, 9:32.80, conference champion and second in region, conference record, national qualifier; Kutil, 10:06.10, second in the conference and third in region, national qualifier; Colin Jokisch, 10:06.40, third in conference and fourth in region, national qualifier.
*4x400-meter relay — Cowley (Sparks, Filburn, Butler, Custar, 3:28.02, fifth in conference and 10th in region, national qualifier.
*4x800-meter relay — Cowley (Mapp, Irving, Phillips, Custar), 8:00.69, conference and region champion, national qualifier.
*High jump — Vondrell Harris, 7-1, conference and region champion, school record, national qualifier; Griffith, 6-8 ¾, second in conference and region, national qualifier; Hamm, 6-2 ¾, sixth in conference and 12th in region, national qualifier.
*Pole vault — Mark Butler, 14-9 ½, conference and region champion, national qualifier; Rick Valcin, 14-5 ½, second in conference and region, national qualifier.
*Long jump — Adrian Porter, 22-6 ½, sixth in conference and 10th in region, national qualifier.
*Triple jump — Harris, 49-5 ¾, conference and region champion, national qualifier.
*Shot put — Charles James, 48-5 ¼, third in conference and fifth in region; Kameron Conely, 35-5 ½, ninth in conference and 20th in region; Edric White, 33-8, 13th in conference and 25th in region.
*Discus — James, 131-1, sixth in conference and 10th in region; Mason Putman, 124-7, ninth in conference and 14th in region; White, 105-5, 10th in conference and 21st in region.
*Hammer — Putman, 145-4, sixth in conference and ninth in region; White, 118-7, ninth in conference and 19th in region; James, 113-9, 10th in conference and 21st in region.
*Javelin — Griffith, 167-8, seventh in conference and 10th in region.
*Decathlon — Griffith, 6,451 points, conference and region champion, school record.
Jayhawk East Team Scores: (1) Cowley, 218; (2) Coffeyville, 162; (3) Johnson County, 120; (4) Allen, 116; (5) Neosho County, 77; (6) Highland, 67; (7) Kansas City, 27; (8) Fort Scott, 3.
Region VI Team Scores: (1) Barton, 178; (2) Cowley, 155.3; (3) Butler, 110.8; (4) Coffeyville, 74; (5) Allen, 68.5; (6) Cloud, 56; (7) Neosho County, 49; (8) Hutchinson, 48.5; (9) Johnson County, 41.8; (10) Highland, 29; (11) Kansas City, 23; (12) Colby, 13; (13) Dodge City, 5; (14) Garden City, 4; (15) Pratt, 1.