Tiger track and field athletes get in tune-up before the region meet

With the Region VI/Jayhawk Conference Championships approaching on May 1-3, the nationally ranked Cowley College men's and women's track and field teams were spread across three different meets this past week.

A group of five Tiger athletes competed at the University of Kansas Relays in Lawrence, KS, with the group highlighted by Mercedes Glover's mark of 167-0 in the hammer throw. Glover's throw ties her with Kayla McClellan's throw from 2023 for the third-best in program history and is currently ranked fourth nationally..

"Mercedes has been knocking on that 50-meter door in the hammer for a while now, and she completely blew through it this past weekend," Cowley head coach Cameron Rieth said.

The majority of the Tiger track and field teams competed at the Kansas Wesleyan Coyote Challenge on Friday and Saturday. The distance carnival was held Friday night, and there were two new national qualifiers: Miquel Cruz in the 1,500-meter run and Pedro Balestrini in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

"Our distance runners really had a good showing on Friday," Rieth said. "Nearly everyone who competed ran a personal best."

Cruz ran a personal best by six seconds in the 1,500-meter run. Alexis Realland was fractions of a second off from qualifying in the 1,500 as well.

Lady Tiger sophomore Kayli Myers ran a personal best by 12 seconds in the 1,500 and was just a few seconds shy of the national qualifying mark. Fellow sophomore Savannah Fischer had a monster 40-second personal best in the 5k.

"We have been working really well as of late, and a lot of these performances have been building and building up at practice, and it was only a matter of time before they caught a good day," Rieth said. "I am really proud of them."

The sprinters and field event crew came back the next day and competed. The day was highlighted by Ranaldo Hanna extending his outdoor personal record in the long jump, as well as a solid jump by Alex Delgado del Castillo.

A small group of throwers competed at the Pittsburg State University Tune Up meet. The meet was highlighted with a personal best throw from Jessi McDowell in the discus.

The Tigers will be back in action at the Region VI/KJCCC Outdoor Championships, hosted by Coffeyville Community College on May 1-3.

Results from Kansas Wesleyan:

WOMEN

*100-meter dash – Karma Singleton, 13.36, seventh.

*200-meter dash – Grace Knight, 16.61, eighth.

*400-meter dash – Knight, 1:02.64, ninth; Dayanna Brito-Hernandez, 1:02.91, 11^th; Daniela Lozano-Cardenas, 1:06.36, 17^th; Daynel Calvo, 1:06.87, 19^th.

*800-meter run – Brito-Hernandez, 2:28.71, 19^th; Lozano-Cardenas, 2:38.13, 32^nd; Calvo, 2:40.89, 36^th.

*1,500-meter run – Kayli Myers, 4:57.97, 11^th.

*5,000-meter run – Savannah Fischer, 19:04.23, fifth; Pauline Althoff, 19:46.20, eighth.

*100-meter hurdles – Singleton, 17.58, sixth.

*High jump – Makayla Gay, 4-9 ½, fourth.

*Shot put – Jessi McDowell, 36-2 ¼, seventh; Amoni Evans, 35-9 ½. Ninth; Katie Cook, 32-0 ¾, 16^th.

*Discus – McDowell, 118-9, fifth; Katie Cook, 103-1, 16^th.

*Hammer – Cook, 128-7, fifth; Alicyn McGinnis, 107-3, 12^th.

*Javelin – McGinnis, 98-10, 11^th.

MEN

*100-meter dash – Alex Delgado del Castillo, 11.39, 10^th; Malik Wood, 11.80, 22^nd.

*200-meter dash – Miguel Garcia Redondo, 22.72, 12^th; Nahuel Aguerrebehere Badia, 23.11, 20^th; Wood, 23.87, 30^th.

*400-meter dash – Joe Lazabarahona, 50.72, seventh; Badia, 52.05, 12^th; Miguel Garcia Redondo, 52.09, 13^th; Benjamin Long, 56.10, 32^nd.

*800-meter run – Randy Rojas Mendez, 2:00.34, 16^th.

*1,500-meter run – Cruz, 3:56.82, second; Realland, 3:59.17, fourth; Esteban Boisseau, 4:01.99, seventh; ManuelLeos, 4:23.17, 22^nd; Eli Roberts, 4:28.18, 26^th.

*5,000-meter run – Conner Walker, 16:37.19, 11^th.

*3,000-meter steeplechase – Pedro Balestrini, 9:41.93, first.

*High jump – Victor Morfin, 6-5, third; Ranaldo Hanna, 6-3 ¼, fourth; Long, 6-1 ¼, ninth.

*Pole vault – Tyler Spivey, 13-3 ½, fifth; Thomas Deviney, 11-3 ¾, 13^th.

*Long jump – Hanna, 23-8 ¾, second; del Castillo, 22-3 ¾, eighth.

*Javelin – Haney, 133-2, 16^th.

*Hammer – Haney, 153-7, third.