Championship Central

PITTSBURG, Kan. – Led by the Region 6 Women’s Track Athlete of the Meet Mildred Rono and Region 6 Women’s Field Athlete of the Meet Xylavene Beale, the Hutchinson Community College women’s track and field team has won its first NJCAA Region 6 Indoor Track and Field Championship team title in program history following two days of competition inside the Robert W. Plaster Center on the campus of Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Earning wins in five individual events and adding a sixth Region 6 title in the women’s Distance Medley Relay, the Blue Dragons finished the weekend with 145 points to outlast NJCAA Region 6 runners-up Barton Community College as the Cougars earned 127 points to finish as the only other team of the 12 scoring teams to score at the meet to break the 100-point mark. Cloud County Community College earned a third-place finish with 90 total points, while Cowley (88 points) and Butler (73.5 points) rounded out the top five in the team scoring.

Of the six new NJCAA Region 6 Women’s Meet records set throughout the weekend, Rono and the Blue Dragons accounted for four as the freshman earned Region titles in dominant fashion by winning the mile run (4:53.40), 3,000 meters (9:47.12), and 5,000 meters (16:41.60) while also running the anchor leg of the first track event of the weekend while helping HCC’s distance medley relay team (Ashara Frater, Sabrina McDonald, Kimberlin Lovell, and Rono) run a time of 11:58.18 to set a new meet record by nearly eight seconds. Rono’s Mile run time was over three seconds better than the previous records set in 200,6 while her 3,000-meter time was a full four seconds faster than the previous record, as both records were previously held by Butler’s Diane Nukuri while the previous 5,000-meter record holder was Betty Rotich of Colby Community College. Beale’s NJCAA region 6 titles came in both throwing events, sweeping the weight throw (17.01 meters, 55 ft. – 10 in.) and shot put (15.62 meters, 51 ft. – 3 in.) as both marks rank inside the top two of the NJCAA this season.

Other NJCAA Region 6 Meet records set during the meet included Barton’s Camoy Binger running a time of 8.26 seconds in the 60 meter hurdles to break a three-year record previously held by Miracle Thompson of Cloud County  (2023) while Allen’s RaNayla Moten put down a time of 23.57 seconds in the 200 meters to break Mercy Ntia-Obong’s (Cloud County) previous record of 23.71 seconds.

In the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference East and West Division scoring, Hutchinson made it a clean sweep by winning the West Division with 172 points in the seven-team race, with Cloud County and Barton both finishing in a tie for second with 153 points. The East Division team title was won by Cowley College with 223 points, followed by Coffeyville in second with 174.0 points and Butler in third with 137 points. KJCCC Coaching honors were earned by Cloud County’s Drew Mahin (KJCCC Women’s Head Coach of the Year) and Garden City’s Juliette Rios (KJCCC Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year).