Cordell Breaks PCC Record at Air Force Meet

The Pratt Community College Track and Field team travelled to Colorado Springs, Colorado on Friday night to compete at the Air Force Academy. Despite this being only their second indoor meet of the season, and they’re first since Christmas break, the Beavers shook off the rust and came away with some very encouraging performances against top notch NCAA teams. The Beavers were the only junior college school at the meet.
  
Leading the way for the Beavers was Lacey Davis. Davis, a sophomore from St. Petersburg, Florida, placed eighth in the 60m dash and eleventh in the 200m dash, running a 7.02  and a 22.60. Both times were personal indoor bests for Davis. Davis also ran an outstanding second leg on Pratt’s 4x400m relay team that took 6th place overall. The team of Bruce Blackshear, Davis, Dustin Murphy, and Colt Tomlin lead the race wire to wire and were only beaten by NCAA Division One schools, Colorado, Northern Colorado, and Air Force Academy and Division Two Metro State University.
  
The most impressive performance of the day may have come from Pratt’s freshman thrower Joe Cordell, from Little River, Kansas. Cordell, throwing in his first meet in nearly two years, needed just one meet to break the Pratt Community College Indoor Shot Put record previously held by Greg Keeton. Cordell’s throw of 44’0” broke the 20 year old record by 3 ½ inches.
  
“Joe Cordell broke a school record, and he wasn’t overly excited, but only because he wants to crush that record, and break a couple more.” said Coach Cyrus Hall.
 
“Honestly, I was nervous, said Hall.  "Coming off the break, I thought we’d be rusty, and we were. But that may be the best meet overall we’ve had since I arrived here. Everyone competed extremely well. The kids were excited, and focused and they competed hard. I told them afterwards, that they just went toe to toe with some pretty good NCAA schools and they did well. Lacey Davis is ready for a big time season if he continues to improve. But most importantly, our freshman weren’t intimidated.  They represented our school and our program well today.”
 
Things will continue to be full speed ahead for Coach Hall’s Beaver team as they travel to Kearney, Nebraska this Saturday to run at the University of Nebraska Kearney.
  
“We go up to Kearney this weekend, and I’m anxious to see how the kids handle themselves after their performance in Colorado, said Hall. “We’ve got a lot of room for growth, and we have an opportunity to be really really good this semester. It’s gonna be a fun ride.”