Road Warriors

 
Pratt Community College’s Track and Field team once again took to the road Fri., Jan. 27 as they competed in the Cavalier Night Relays at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kan. Despite the extensive travel, and being short on bodies, the Beavers managed to perform at a high level. The PCC squad came away with one event winner, two runner up finishes and several more top ten placers.
 
Leading the way on the day for the women’s team was sophomore Elena Botello. Botello won the 1000m run in a time of 3:36.59, and placed third in the 3000m run in a time of 12:58.07. While her times were far from personal bests, Coach Hall was pleased with her progress coming off an injury that sidelined her throughout November and December. “Anytime you lose valuable training time to an injury, it can affect where you are at conditioning wise later on,” Hall said. “So, we are on the right track and she is working hard.”
 
On the men’s side, the freshman boys had a solid showing on the day. For the second week in a row, the duo of Junior Doerue and Jared Walker both advanced to the 60m dash finals. For the second week in a row, Doerue was edged out in a photo finish to place second. Walker however, improved his time from 7.16 to 7.06 placing fourth overall. Walker also placed fourth in the 200m dash. Artrail Skipper, another talented PCC freshman placed second in the triple jump. His jump of 44’6 ¾ “ was a season best by nearly two feet.
 
Rounding out the stellar performances for PCC were middle distance runners Andrew Johnson and Blake Thompson. Johnson, a sophomore, won his heat of the mile in a time of 4:50.97 which was good enough to earn him seventh place in a very competitive field of runners. Not far behind was the freshman Thompson in 4:57.44, Thompson placed thirteenth. Johnson also placed ninth in the 800m run.
  
The Beavers are off this weekend before making the trip north to Kearney, Neb. on Feb. 11. The Beavers will compete in the annual Charlie Foster Classic at the University of Nebraska Kearney. The meet will start at 9 a.m.