The Beaver track and field team traveled to Hobbs, NM for the NJCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships last week May 18-20. The top performer for Pratt was Jamaira Ross finishing sixth in the steeplechase breaking her previous school record with a time of 11:55.35. Ross finished her outdoor season as an All-American.
"It was good to see some people step up and competing, like Jamaira Ross all-American. She came in ranked 9th and ended up finishing 6th. Any time you come in the nationals and do better than you were ranked as, is a win," said Head Track Coach Quintin Powell. "She has put a lot of demanding work with Coach Scott, she did good in XC this year and finished 17th and in indoor she qualified for the regional meet for nationals. This year she just had a different mindset and focus, locked in and intense. It was good to watch her go out and compete and become an all-American for us."
Other top performers for the Beavers include Tishere Dockery in the 400M Hurdles who finished 16 overall with a time of 54.17. Braden Colglazier had a phenomenal season in both indoor and outdoor season and finished tied with ninth with a jump of 1.97M.
Pratt finished their season with two All-Americans, 17 All-KJCCA West, and seven All-Region VI accolades. There were also seven school records broken including the women's 3KM steeplechase, women's outdoor 5KM, women's indoor weight throw, men's indoor weight throw, men's javelin, women's indoor and outdoor 400M.
"This year we had athletes that were our athletes, like 80% that we recruited. We got more of the championship mentality than the previous athletes we had," said Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Matt Scott. "It helped us to score some more of the points, we moved up from no points on the women's side to 13 points, with Jamaira Ross making 9 of those and in the KJCC west we went from 0 to 28 points. And on the men's side we went from no points in the region to 15 points and the KJCC west we went from 2 points to 55 points."
"It was a good year overall. Not the way we wanted to end it, we thought we were going to have more all-Americans," said Coach Powell. "It is something you work for, you want to see all that work that you put in being celebrated, being rewarded with accolades and stuff but it was still a great year."