Tigers shine at big turnout for Mark A. Phillips Track Invite

Showing their love and support for former Cowley College head track and field coach Mark Phillips, 18 schools participated in the second-annual Mark A—Phillips Track Invite on Saturday in Arkansas City.

Phillips, who was inducted into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame in 2020, spent 18 years as the head coach at Cowley College before retiring due to health reasons. Sadly, Coach Phillips passed away on April 5, 2022.

In Phillips' time at Cowley, he led the Tigers to two national championships, 32 Jayhawk Conference titles, 11 Region VI titles, and 14 top-five finishes at the NJCAA National Championships.

The meet, the first of the outdoor season for the Tiger men's and women's track and field teams, had over 500 athletes spread over 1,100 entries.

"It was great to host all of the schools that traveled to participate in our meet," Cowley head coach Cameron Rieth said. "We take great pride in putting on a quality and efficiently run competition anytime we get the opportunity to host. The entire staff at Cowley cannot thank the community that came out to support and help put on the meet enough. We understand the impact of hosting a meet like this and what it could bring to the community. We make every effort we can in order to do a good job. With it being as big as it was, it created challenges that we did not expect, but thankfully we had a lot of community support that helped us cover everything."

The Cowley teams had a great return to competition, posting nine national qualifiers and 10 Top 15 All-Time Program performances, and several others narrowly missed the marks.

"This is a very reassuring start to the season," Rieth said. "We know we have a long way to go, and this meet was mainly about blowing off a little bit of the competition rust that accumulated between the seasons."

The Tigers' pole vault crew came out firing, with four members hitting the national qualifying standard. 

Cowley national qualifiers at the meet:

1. Victor Morfin: High Jump
2. Tavarie Campbell: 1500m
3. Dakota Dapper: Pole Vault
4. Kennedy Kizarr: Pole Vault
5. Riley Hunter: Pole Vault
6. Randall Coble: Pole Vault
7. Julien Washington: Hammer
8. Jamilet Bautista Infante: Javelin
9. Cierra Gray: Shot Put

Top 15 All-Time Program Performances:

1. Siyabonga Jiyane: 400m (#8)
2. Dayanna Brito-Hernandez: 400m ( #14)
3. Pedro Balenstrini: 1500m (#8)
4. Tavarie Campbell: 1500m (#14)
5. Women's 4x100m: Dayanna Brito-Hernandez, Genesis Bautista, Isabella Kupka, Riannon St. Clair (#8)
6. Victor Morfin: HJ (#5)
7. Dakota Dapper: PV (#10)
8. RJ Hanna: TJ (#8)
9. Julien Washington: Hammer Throw: (#4)
10. Cierra Gray SP: (#6)