Allen Community College’s athletes will vie for the coveted running “triple crown” when they travel to Arkansas City Friday and Saturday for the Region VI/Jayhawk East Championships.
The Allen men already own conference titles in cross country and indoor track.
While head coach Vince DeGrado concedes anything can happen at a meet of this magnitude — especially with a team such as Allen that has a limited number of field competitors, including no throwers.
“We’ll have seven events where we don’t enter anybody,” he notes.
Nevertheless, he’s optimistic about his team’s chances.
He has good reason, with ACC’s sterling sprinters racking up school records by the armload, and qualifying several for the NJCAA Outdoor National Championships May 15-17 in Mesa, Ariz.
Among April highlights:
— Allen’s Jethro St. Hubert won the men’s long jump with a national qualifying mark of 23 feet, 3.5 inches at the Southwestern Relays in Winfield Saturday. In addition, the ACC men won the 4×800-meter relay with another national qualifying time of 7 minutes, 52.6 seconds.
— Brandon Bernal opened his outdoor season April 18 at the Central Missouri Mule Relays by qualifying for nationals in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:55.18. Patrick Rachford just missed qualifying for nationals in the 5000-meter run with a time of 15:51.89.
— Kyle Schauvliege broke an ACC school record in the 10,000 meters with a time of 31:46.16 at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence April 17-19. The old school mark was set in 1991. Dallas Snider also took the school record in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:57.29, erasing a mark that had stood since 1998. Salvador Medrano narrowly missed qualifying for nationals in the 3000-meter steeple chase with a time of 9:56.24. He needed a time of 9:56.22. Meanwhile, Vanessa Style shattered her own school mark in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.69 seconds to take second overall.
— Even though he topped his 1500 mark a week later, Snider already had qualified for nationals at the KT Woodman Relays at Wichita State University April 11-12 with a time of 4:00.82. Schauvliege ran 15:32.45 in the 5000 meters, while Brock Artis ran in 15:35.81, qualifying both for nationals. Terika Henry broke the 100-meter dash school mark of 11.73 seconds in a preliminary round before withdrawing before the finals. Elesha Alyn qualified for nationals in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.44 seconds. Style ran the 100 hurdles in 13.92 seconds to finish second.
— The Allen men won the team title at the Emporia State Relays April 5 by taking second in the 4×400 relay, third in the 4×800 relay and third in the 4×100 relay. Artis broke the school record in the 3000 meters with a time of 8:59.61, good for fourth place overall. Deandre Henderson won the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.86 seconds. Antonio Duncan ran the 400-meter hurdles in 54.70 seconds, a national qualifying mark. The men’s 4×100 relay team qualified for nationals with time of 41.25 seconds; the 4×400 relay team finished in 3:18.48, also a national qualifier. Henry qualified for nationals in the 400 with a time of 56.77 seconds.
THE REGION VI meet will take DeGrado and his team back to Arkansas City, where DeGrado coached Cowley County’s track and field and cross country teams to great success over a four-year period, ending in 2011.
“I was joking that I was surprised they didn’t lose our invitation in the mail,” DeGrado said. “Part of me wants to see us go kick their ass, but it’s not about me. It’s about the kids and seeing what they can accomplish.”
