Pittsburg, KS – The Central Christian College men's and women's indoor track and field team competed this past weekend at the 3rd Annual Gorilla Classic hosted by Pittsburg State University. The Tigers competed against NCAA Di, DII, NJCAA and other NAIA programs. The field was stacked and the Tigers came away with mixed results, very positive results in some events, and in other events, not what they were hoping for.
In the men's long jump, the Tigers' Mark Noel finished in 29th place with a jump of 6.21m (20.08 ft). The Tigers' two top jumpers, Clay Gause and Malik Johnson fouled on their attempts and failed to record a qualifying jump. Johnson however, bounced back in the triple jump and finished in 12th place with a jump of 14.21m (46.62 ft).
In the men's 60m Dash, Central's John Jones, who has one of the top times in the NAIA this year, finished just off the podium. His time of 6.82 landed him in 4th place, just 7 hundredths behind the 3rd place finisher. He was the only NAIA runner to make the finals.
The men's 200m Dash had 80 runners compete, four of them from Central. Alfred Thomas finished in 5th with the top NAIA time of 21.59. Qawtavis Johnson was also in the top 15 with a time of 21.73, the 3rd fastest NAIA time, landing him in 13th. Rounding out the event for the Tigers were Jones, and Tre Templeton. Jones was 50th in 22.48, and Templeton finished in 22.91, the 70th best time in the event.
In the men's 4x400m relay, the Tiger team of Thomas, Jevon James, Alan Leyva, and Derek White finished in 16th place in 3:17.91, the second fastest time of the NAIA schools that participated.
For the women, the best result of the day came from Amanda Murray in the 60m Hurdles. She had the 5th fastest time in qualifying at 8.94. Unfortunately she was a hair slower in the prelims, running a 9.12, and finishing in 19th. However, her 9.12 was the 2nd fastest time recorded by an NAIA participant.
The Tiger women also competed in the 4x400m Relay, but the team of Murray, Temar Smith, Brandy Smith, and Hannah Fredrickson false started, and were disqualified.
Click here for a full listing of the results of each event.
The Gorilla Classic was the last regular season indoor meet for the Tigers. They will spend the next three weeks getting ready for the NAIA Indoor Nationals on March 1-3 which incidentally will be run at Pitt State, where they have already run twice this year.
