By STEVE CARPENTER - Hutchinson CC Sports Information Director
All 12 intercollegiate athletics teams at Hutchinson Community College have been adversely affected by the Coronavirus pandemic without a doubt.
Blue Dragon track and field head coach Robert Spies and his men's and women's teams are no different. The Dragons lost the entire 2020 outdoor season and the national championships were to be at Gowans Stadium. Now the 2021 indoor season is 75 percent complete and the Blue Dragons have yet to compete.
"We are just pretty happy to get a meet in before the Region VI meet," said Spies, who is in his second season with the Blue Dragons. "We have a lot of challenges, but we will go and do the best we can."
The Blue Dragons will finally open the 2021 indoor season on Friday at the Cowley Indoor Invitational in Arkansas City. The field events will be contested in the Tigers' indoor complex while the track events will be outside on the track.
This meet comes just two weeks before the Region VI Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Plaster Center in Pittsburg.
The 2021 indoor season has been tough for several different reasons. With capacity restrictions making what few official size indoor venues unavailable, the KJCCC teams have had to become inventive to get performances posted for nationals. The weather has played a role in meets trying to do what Cowley has done with field events inside and running events outside. The Blue Dragons have lost three scheduled meets to those conditions.
"Right now it's a matter of giving them the opportunity to compete," Spies said.
There are several oddities to the 2021 spring season.
Because of the lack of meets all over the country, the NJCAA ruled that because of Covid, that returning athletes could use their indoor marks from last season for qualifying for the 2021 national championships.
Spies won't have his top male sprinter available for the indoor season. Sophomore Jared Scott qualified in both the 60 meters and 200 meters last season. The sprinter doesn't have any junior college eligibility left in indoor track because the season was completed before the pandemic put a stop to the spring season. Scott, who owns Hutchinson's second-fastest 100-meter time (10.18 seconds) and fifth-fastest 200 (21.15) in program history, will compete again when the outdoor season opens in mid-March.
MEN'S PREVIEW
The Blue Dragons have two returning national qualifiers from 2020 – high jumper Wyatt Thiel and sprinter Jovan Jackson.
Thiel cleared an indoor high of 6 feet, 6 3/4 inches at the UCO Alumni Classic. He no-heighted at the national championship last season.
Jackson qualified in the 600 meters and just missed qualifying for the finals at the national championship. Jackson ran a season-best 1:22.21 at the Region VI Championships and posted a Nationals time of 1:38.78.
The Blue Dragons have several middle and long-distance runners from Hutchinson's national fifth place cross country team.
Cross Country All-American Teagan Flanagan leads a talented group of middle- and long-distance runners for Spies. Flanagan rans indoor bests in 2020 of 4:34.34 in the mile run, 8:53.01 in the 3,000 meters and 15:28.54 in the 5,000 meters.
Sophomore Jacob McElhanon also returns as a distance runner. He placed 20th in the national cross country championship. His top freshman indoor marks were 2:12.20 in the 800 meters, 4:38.93 in the Mile run and 8:56.43 in the 3,000 meters.
As far as his first-year runners, Spies said to keep an eye on freshman Zach Beile (Hutchinson Trinity) in the high jump and hurdles in the outdoor season. Eric Johnson is Liberty University transfer who competes in the long and triple jump. Clyedterrious Thompson is a freshman long and triple jump athlete who will also run in the sprints.
WOMEN'S PREVIEW
The Blue Dragon women have only one returning national qualifier in multi-athlete Rebecca Reymundo.
She finished 12th in the 2020 NJCAA Pentathlon with 2,367 points. She qualified with 2,425 points in finishing sixth in the Region VI Championship. Reymundo will carry her 2,425-point total into this season. If she doesn't surpass it at the 2021 regional championships and that mark is among the Top 16, Reymundo will return to the national championship.
Spies also returns a pair of pole vaulters who scored at Region VI, but didn't make it to nationals. Kiana Brown was the 2020 Region VI runner-up in the event after clearing 9-1 3/4. Violet Martinez tied for fifth at regionals at 8-8.
The Blue Dragon women should get a big boost from distance runner Louise Cocking, who earned first-team All-America status in cross country with a fifth-place showing at the 2020 NJCAA Championships.
Sophomore thrower Taylon Mendendall stands a good chance to qualify in the weight throw. Her freshman-best throw of 41-5 was just off the national qualifying standard.
Sophomore Megan Miller, another member of the Blue Dragon cross country team, returns. Last season Miller posted the ninth-fastest 1,000-meter time in Blue Dragon history of 3:14.42.
Spies calls his women's team "extremely young."