Gannon Cornley II
Student Sports Media
The Gorilla Challenge took place at Pittsburg State on Friday, Feb. 10, and on Saturday, Feb. 11. The Grizzlies men’s and women’s track team came into this week with one more chance to run before the Regional and National Championships. The Grizzlies took the dress rehearsal to their advantage as they had a couple of top three finishes and got themselves ready for Regionals.
On Friday, Feb. 17, and on Saturday, Feb. 18, the Butler’s men’s and women’s team ran at the NJCAA Region VI Indoor Championships at Pittsburg State. The men took home first winning the Indoor Championship for the second straight year. The Grizzlies won the regional title with a total of 172 points beating out Cloud County in second. Seven first place victories along with four runner-up finishes put the Grizzlies into the winning position. Andre Ewers won the 60-meter dash as well as the 200-meter dash. Landon Cuskelly won the high jump beating out teammate Tyson Penn. Penn turned around and won the triple jump 48 feet, 2 inches. A pair of records were broken over the weekend.
Quintaveon Poole broke the Region VI record in the 400-meter dash with a time of 46.44 seconds. The men’s 4×400 took their level of dominance to a new level breaking a Regional VI record with a time of 3:11.70 seconds. Valeriya Kostiuk continued her success winning the high jump with a jump of 1.76meters (5 feet, 7 inches).
“I’m proud of our team and how they competed this past weekend.” Head Coach Ryan Turner said. “Winning team championships is difficult. To win it took a bunch of individuals setting aside personal goals and sacrificing themselves for the good of the team.”
The NJCAA Indoor National Championships will take place Friday, March 3 and Saturday, March 4 at Pittsburg State.
