Paced by Blake Withrow capturing the Decathlon on Friday, the Hutchinson Community College men’s track and field team put itself in good position for runs at both regional and conference championships after Day 2 of the 2012 Region VI Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Gowans Stadium.
Hutchinson leads the Region VI men’s team standings after six events with 52 points, garnering 20 points alone from three top-five finishes in the Decathlon alone. Coffeyville is second with 46 points and Johnson County is third with 37 points. The Blue Dragons, looking to defend their 2011 Jayhawk West championship, leads the conference portion of the championships with 52 points. Colby is second with 26 points and Barton is third with 15 points.
Several HCC men had big days on Friday, which started off with Withrow making a late charge to become HCC’s first Region VI Decathlon winner since Jarid NeSmith two years ago.
Withrow trailed Cowley’s Rodgerick Woods by 128 points after the first day of competition and was down by 302 points after the eighth of 10 events, the pole vault. Withrow made his move in the javelin, winning the event with a throw of 136 feet, 9 inches. He outscored Woods by 390 points to take the lead into the final event of the day.
Withrow scored 585 points in the 110-meter hurdles after a time of 17.38 seconds. He was first in the discus and scored 477 points with a throw of 100-5. Withrow then cleared 9-7 ¼ in the pole vault for 342 points and finished out with a fifth-place showing in the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:53.49, a score of 598 points.
Karson Becker finished third in the Decathlon with 5,573 points. Becker’s individual performances were: 110-meter hurdles (16.66, 660 points), discus (98-7, 466 points), pole vault (8-11 ¾, 246 points), javelin (136-9, 467 points), 1,500 meters (4:48.69, 627 points).
Alex Hill placed fifth in the Decathlon with 5,339 points. Hill’s marks for Friday were: 110-meter hurdles (17.61, 562 points), discus (89-3, 410 points), pole vault (10-7 ¾, 416 points), javelin (136-4, 465 points), 1,500 meters (5:22.74, 436 points).
The Blue Dragons scored big in the field events on Friday, getting 14 points out of the hammer throw. Skylar Arneson bettered his career best throw by 5 feet in finishing second in the hammer with a throw of 183 feet, 7 inches, which is the second-best throw in team history. Teammate Weston Cottrell, who has the third-best throw in HCC history, finished third on Friday with a throw of 173-7.
Sophomore Robert Whitfield reached a P.R. and notched the second-best long jump in team history when he unleashed a jump of 24-4 ½ to finish second in the long jump.
Freshman John Siale took forth in the men’s javelin with a throw of 174 feet.
On the track Friday, the Blue Dragons scored five points when the 4x800-meter relay team placed fourth with a time of 7:52.77. The relay was ran by Skylar Gutierrez, Isaac Williams, Branson Massey and Julio Martinez.
Sprinter Cordarrelle Patterson qualified for Saturday’s finals in both the 100 and 200 meters. Patterson posted the third-best qualifying time on Friday in the 100 meters with a time of 10.33 seconds, the fourth-best time in team history. Patterson had the fourth-best qualifying time in the 200 meters at 21.19 seconds, the fourth-best time in team history.
Field events on Saturday begin at 10 a.m. with the finals on the track beginning at Noon at Gowans Stadium.
(HCC Sports Information)
