LEVELLAND, Texas – Sophomore Weston Cottrell got the Region VI/Jayhawk West champion Hutchinson Community College men’s track and field team off to a great start on Tuesday at the NJCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships at South Plains College.
Cottrell posted a personal best and the third-best hammer throw in Blue Dragon history to finish third in the nation on Day 1 of the three-day championship event. Cottrell had only one good throw on Tuesday in six attempts, but made it count with a distance of 178 feet, 6 inches, which came on his second attempt in the preliminary round.
The Blue Dragons had three qualifiers in the hammer. Robert Dunn finished 13th overall with a top throw of 157-1. Freshman Skylar Arneson fouled on all three throws in the preliminaries.
After the first day in the NJCAA Decathlon, HCC’s Blake Withrow, the Region VI champion, is ninth after five events with 3,124 points. Karson Becker is 12th in the field of 16 with 2,988 points.
Withrow totaled 677 points in the 100 meters with a time of 11.87 seconds, 604 points in the long jump with a distance of 19-11 1/2, 560 points in the shot put with a throw of 36-10 1/2, 610 points in the high jump after clearing 5-10 and 673 points in the 400 meters with a time of 53.21 seconds.
Becker scored 655 points in the 100 meters with a time of 11.98 seconds, scored 527 points in the long jump at 18 feet, 9 ¼ inches; 497 points in the shot put at 33-5 ¼, 636 points in the high jump after clearing 5-11 ¼ and 673 points after a time of 53.19 seconds in the 400 meters.
Only one HCC women’s national qualifier competed on Tuesday.
Emily Yoder finished 12th in the women’s hammer after a throw of 136 feet, 8 inches.
The completion of the Decathlon, selection field event finals and track preliminaries will take place on Wednesday during Day 2 of the championships.
(HCC Sports Information
