The Iowa Central track and field team took part in two meets this past weekend, sending athletes to both the University of Iowa's Black and Gold Premier and the University of Minnesota's Jack Johnson Classic.
Sprinters headed to Iowa City to gain experience on a banked 200-meter track, with Courtney Lindsey taking advantage. Lindsey, as sophomore, clocked a time of 6.65 in the 60 meters, the fastest time this year in the event.
Lindsey also ran the third-fastest 200-meter time in the nation at 21.10.
In Minnesota, Awet Yohannes posted a 1:51.53 in the 800 for the nation's fastest run. Freshman Kelvin Bungei recorded a 4:07.88 in the mile, which places him fifth-best ever in NJCAA history.
Bungei's time is just three-tenths of a second off that of Iowa Central and NJCAA Hall of Fame runner Stanley Kebenei's school-record run.
"This weekend we split our squad and sent one group to the University of Minnesota and another to the University of Iowa," Iowa Central head coach Jordan Burkholder said. "We had a lot of students at both meets who had season PR's and moved up in the National Ranking for their event area."
In all, the men turned in eight more national qualifying performances and the women recorded six more.
"The first set of rankings came out this past week and our men's team is in a great position. Each week they keep building upon the week before and continue to show us and everyone else that they deserve a number one ranking right now," Iowa Central Director of Track and field and Cross Country Dee Brown said. "Our women are ranked second but I know we haven't shown our best stuff yet. This weekend was a huge step for our sprint squad. At Iowa, they really showed great improvement with three new national qualifiers."
Iowa Central will split its squads again this coming weekend, sending athletes to the Frank Sevigne/Huster Invitational hosted by the University of Nebraska along with the Ted Nelson Classic hosted by the University of Minnesota-Mankato.
Complete meet results for the Iowa event can be found here, with the Jack Johnson Classic results available here.
New National Qualifiers (8 women & 6 men)
Hannah Connell – 60M (T-5th AT)
Tatyana Mckenzie – 200M
Mikeisha Covington – 400M
Eleonora Curtabbi, Florance Uwajeneza, Rosalie Fish – 800 M
Lilian Busienei – 3km
Madison Johnson – HJ (T-6th All-Time)
Dashinelle Dyer (6th AT), Deonte McGoy (9th AT)– 60M
Pur Biel – 600M
Awet Yohannes – 800 Meters
Noah Friske – 1 Mile
Jarod Henderson – SP
All-Time Performers
Awet Yohannes – 800m (4th AT)
Kelvin Bungei – 1 Mile (2nd AT)
Elijha Johnson – 60M (3rd AT) / 200M (5th AT)
Lee Eppie – 400M (5th AT)
Hannah Connell – 200M (9th AT)