Three MCC women score in pole vault on first day of NJCAA indoor championships
Lynchburg, Va. – Led by the women's pole vaulters, who took three of the top seven places in the event, the Mesa track and field teams wrapped up the first day of competition in the NJCAA Indoor National Championships Friday at Liberty University.
That helped the T-Bird women score 11 points, good enough for a tie for seventh place after day one. The Mesa men were tied for 16th place with five points.
Traditionally a strong event for MCC, the three-person finish was hardly unprecedented.
Janie Tenney took third place with a leap of 11-3 ¾. Belle Huber was sixth at 10-0 and Jolynn Fleming seventh, also at 10-0, but had more misses.
All finishers in the top eight in all events earn All-American honors.
In the men's pole vault Lofton Thomas took seventh place with a vault of 15-3.
In addition, the men's distance medley relay team of Andrew McCumber, Cyris Robinson, Luke Nicolds and Conner Dosmann placed sixth in 10:29.24.
Several Mesa athletes qualified during preliminary events and will compete in finals on Saturday.
Jonathan Respress made the finals of the 800 meters with a 1:55.63 clocking.
Two will compete in the men's 1,000 meters. Dosmann was third in 2:36.66 and Geoffrey Grossthal was eighth with a time of 2:31.47.
On the women's side, Mary Simi will run in the 1,000 meters after placing seventh in the trial heat in 3:03.05.
In a surprising development, MCC's Makel Hubbard had a rough day. The co-national record holder in the heptathlon did not clear a height in the high jump, virtually eliminating him in the competition. He also did not clear a height in the open high jump.
The championship concludes Saturday.
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