March 26, 2022

Central Arizona's Track and Field Teams recently competed in two separate meets.  First was the Mesa Multis, followed by the PV Distance in the Dark, and capped off with the Cody McBride Invitational.  CAC continued to improve in many events and added 4 new national qualifiers for the championship meet held in May.  

Obinna Nwankwo started the week off by scoring 5126 points at the Mesa Multi Meet, placing him squarely in the top 10 currently in the nation, ranking 7th respectively.  

The PV Distance in the Dark produced some solid marks from CAC as the distance athletes went on to win the Women's 3k Steeple, Women's 10k and Men's 1500.  Makena Thornton nearly qualified for nationals in her first ever attempt in the 3k Steeple, missing the mark by a mere 5 seconds.  Raphael Kitur, who has already qualified in the 5k, solidified another event at nationals as he won the 1500 meter race in 3.56.64.  His time was also good enough for 20th all-time at CAC, placing him in great company as a freshman. 

The meet was highlighted by 3 national qualifiers in the women's 10k, with 2 of the ladies being new to the event.  Beatrice Keditukei won the 10k for CAC, running an impressive 39:12.32 in her first attempt at such distance.  Her time also placed her into the 10th fastest time ran at CAC for the women.  Beatrice had previously qualified in the 5k the week prior. 

Bella Gallo ran a great PR with a 40:08.70 which also places her in good company with the 17th fastest time at CAC in the 10k.  She was followed closely by Lisbet Porras who ran a 40:34.21.  All three ladies qualified for the National meet in May and are currently ranked 1-3 in the nation in the 10k, respectively

On Saturday, the field and sprint group got into the action, adding a new member to the qualifying list.  Silet Gray ran a 1:06.11 to qualify for the big meet in May and also secures a current top 10 ranking at 7th overall.  Shakera Kirk, Kaise Ugeh, Princess Kara, Bryce Holdridge, Charles Godwin, and Abdul Razak all had previously qualified for nationals at last week's meet but improved on their performances Saturday. 

Princess (15.03m, 2nd in nation in shot put), Shakera (42.55m, 5th in nation in shot put, Kaise (12.84m, 7th in nation in shot put and 5th in nation in discuss at 42.55m) and Charles (2.02m high jump, 8th in nation) all qualified in new events at Cody McBride.  

Central Arizona will continue action at the ACCAC Conference Championships held at Central Arizona College on 4/2/22.  The meet is slated to start at 10:00am and first track event at 10:30am.  Results from the Cody McBride/Distance in the Dark can be found here.