PITTSBURG, Kan. (BlueDragonSports.com) – Freshman shot putter Janiel Montaque punched her ticket to the NJCAA Indoor national championships to lead the Hutchinson Community College women’s track and field team on Saturday at the NAIA/JUCO Challenge at the Robert Plaster Center on the campus of Pittsburg State University.
The Blue Dragons tied Colby for seventh place in the team standings with 27 points. Barton won with 97 team points. Cloud County was second with 90.5 points.
Montaque was the only new qualifier for the Blue Dragons – Hutchinson now has three national qualifiers through two meets this season. She was one of seven Top 10 all-time Blue Dragon performances.
Montaque placed fifth in the shot put with a national-qualifying throw of 41 feet, 7 1/4 inches (12.68 meters), which ranks eighth in Blue Dragon women’s indoor history. Teammate Deisheline Mayer Scott, who qualified last week in the Washburn Rust Buster, posted a personal record in the shot put with a distance of 44-8 1/2 (13.63 meters). The shot put ranks fourth in team history. Freshman Aiyanna Green placed eighth in the event at 41-5 (12.62 meters).
Sophomore Laura Avila placed ninth in the 3,000 meters with a PR time of 10:46.47, which is the third-fastest time in Blue Dragon indoor history.
Sophomore Abigail Grantham posted the fourth-fastest time in Dragon history in the 1,000 meters with a time of 3:08.57. That mark is just .31 seconds off the national qualifying standard. Freshman Ava Lemaster placed sixth in a time of 3:18.07.
Freshman Azariah Dawes placed sixth in the triple jump with a season’s best jump of 35-9 1/4 (10.90 meters). That jump ranks seventh in team history.
Freshman Sierra Brooks posted the 10th-fastest time in team history in the 60-meter hurdles. She placed 18th in a time of 9.63 seconds.
The Blue Dragons will run at two meets next weekend, running at the Washburn Open in Topeka and the Coach Wilson Open at Wichita State’s Heskett Center.
