NJCAA Outdoor ChampionshipsMay 13, 2015 by Lincoln Shryack
JUCO: The Future Is LIVE On Flo!
JUCO: The Future Is LIVE On Flo!
2015 NCAA 400m champion Vernon Norwood competed for South Plains College before starring at LSU, while Cristian Soratos ran at Hartnell College in the CCCAA in 2011 before transferring to Montana State.
FloTrack will be LIVE in Hutchinson, Kansas and San Mateo, California for both the NJCAA and CCCAA Championships this weekend!
After witnessing the NCAA’s future stars at the NJCAA Indoor Championships in March, we’re returning for the outdoor meet looking to see what some of the fastest athletes that no one has heard of can do on the 400m oval. In Albuquerque, we saw dominating performances in the distance races by Harry Mulenga (Central Arizona) and Lydia Mato (Barton), with Mulenga winning the men’s mile, 3k, and 5k, and Mato pulling off a ridiculous quadruple in the 1k, mile, 3k, and 5k. These two are back this weekend with similar ambitions of dominance.
Harry Mulenga's 3k win indoors:
After setting the NJCAA 600m record of 1:16.22 indoors, Jaymes Dennision of Asa College will compete in the 800m this weekend. Iowa Western's Strymar Livingston, who was runner-up in the 600m, will be tough to beat here as his 1:49.54 mark is the only time under 1:50. Livingston broke national high school records in the indoor 500m and 600m as a prep in New York.
Dennision's 600m JUCO record:
Both the South Plains men and women are favored to repeat their title from indoors, as their sprint dominance cannot be matched by anyone. The SPC men routinely produce future SEC stars, and this year’s crop of talent will try and make it a 9-peat at the outdoor championships. Headlined by indoor 60m champion Odean Skeen, who ran 6.56 to win in ABQ, the Texans have depth that is unmatched at the NJCAA level.
Odean Skeen's 6.56 60m at the 2015 NJCAA Indoor Championships:
The SPC ladies are looking to start a streak of their own this weekend by repeating their 2014 title. Diamond Gause of South Plains will face off with Western Texas’ Janet Amponsah in the 100 and 200 after they each took titles in March, Gause in the 60 and Amponsah in the 200. Amponsah’s 11.12 100 is the top time in the NJCAA, and would rank her 4th in the NCAA in 2015.
For the first time in our history, we’ll be LIVE from the California Community College Championships, which produced 2015 NCAA breakout star Cristian Soratos, who competed for Hartnell College in 2011.
The next Soratos might just be in San Mateo this weekend. You’re not going to want to miss any of the distance action, and the sprints figure to be on point as well. In 2014, Kemarley Brown of Merritt College won the CCCAA 100m in 9.93, which was a World lead at the time.
The NJCAA Championships will be LIVE starting at 12:00 pm CT Friday, followed by the CCCAA Championships at 12:30 pm PT on Saturday.