DES MOINES, Iowa – NIACC Track and field opened their outdoor track season with six Trojans qualifying for the NJCAA National Outdoor Meet and six event wins at the Grand View Viking Relays on Saturday.
For the women, Anna Buenneke (So., Hazelton, IA) won the women’s 1500-meter run and qualified for nationals with a 5:00.99 finish, while Tanesha Edmond (So., St. Elizabeth, Jamaica) placed second in the high-jump with a 1.65 meter jump (5’5”) and in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:05.61. She qualified for nationals in both those events.
On the men’s side, Cody Manchester (So., Mason City, IA) placed second (32:43.33) and Trent Smith (Fr., Charles City, IA) placed third (32:45.83) to qualify for nationals in the 10000-meter run. Trey Taylor (Fr., Bloomfield, CT) will also be going to the NJCAAs after winning the javelin with a 55.78 meter throw (83’0”).
Lance Maxwell’s (So., Racine, WI) 15.28 meter toss (50’1¾”) in the shot put also has him going to nationals. He almost qualified in the discus with a 43.30 throw (142’1”), but was a little over a meter short of the qualifying standard.
Outside of national qualifiers, NIACC had four race winners and four second-place finishes that didn’t qualify. RJ Harris (So., Des Moines, IA) won the men’s steeplechase (10:19.62), Marquez Hobson (So., Minneapolis, MN) won the men’s 5000-meter run (16:58.31) and Denzel Samson (So., Fort Worth, TX) won the long jump (6.47 meters, 21’2¾”).
Darcy Nelson (So., Lake Mills, IA), Hillary Garvey (Fr., Hudson, IA), Edmond and Caila Jones (So., Spirit Lake, IA) all took first in the women’s 4×400-meter relay with a time of 4:15.60. Nelson also had a second-place finish in the women’s long jump at 4.59 meters (15’0¾”).
Ashley Ubbelohde (So., Waterloo, IA) almost qualified for nationals with a second-place finish in 12:39.90 during women’s steeplechase. That time is six seconds off the national qualifying time.
Aaron Arment (Fr., Marshalltown, IA) placed second in the men’s 100-meter dash at 11.20, and the men’s distance medley team of OJ Ojullu (Fr., Worthington, MN), Andrew Corcoran (So., Sumner, IA), Jonny Worley (Fr., Greene, IA), and Eric Peters placed second in 11:07.10.
NIACC will be at the Central Invitational in Pella next weekend.
