FISHER TIES FOR WOODMAN LONG JUMP TITLE

Hutchinson CC Sports Information

WICHITA – Hutchinson Community College freshman Elijah Fisher long jumper Elijah Fisher broke 23 feet for the first time in his career on Saturday at the K.T. Woodman Classic at Wichita State's Cessna Stadium.

That PR helped Fisher to a first-place tie in the event and led the Blue Dragons. No. 13-ranked Hutchison had three Top 5 event finishes over the two-day run of the Woodman Classic.

Fisher qualified for the finals with the second best jump of the preliminaries at 22 feet, 3 inches. With his second jump of the finals, Fisher unloaded a personal best leap of 23 feet, 4 1/2 inches to take the event lead. On the event's final jump, Cloud County's Peter Ackah tied Fisher with a jump 23-4 1/2.

On Friday, freshman Andrew Kibet became the fourth Blue Dragon to qualify for the NJCAA outdoor championships in the 5,000 meters. Kibet ran the ninth fastest time in the NJCAA this season and third-fastest time in Blue Dragon history with a time of 14 minutes, 42.58 seconds, which was fourth at the Woodman Classic. Kibet joins Sylvestre Kibarar, Brett Hillabrand and Jared Stark as 5,000 meter national qualifiers.

Hutchinson's other Top 5 Woodman finish came from Guthrie Turner in the triple jump. He finished fourth with a jump of 37 feet, 10 inches.

Other Top Blue Dragon men's performances this weekend were:

+ Jason Luft finished seventh in the 800 meters with a time of 1:58.65.

+ Quinn Turnbull placed eighth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.71 seconds.

+ Sophomore Denilson Whitmore placed ninth in the 400 meters with a time of 51.54 seconds.

The Blue Dragons next compete at the Kansas Relays Thursday through Saturday in Lawrence and at the Tabor Invitational on Saturday in Hillsboro.