Sears & Vakasobuduru Earn Trip to Nationals
Pittsburg, KS - The Neosho County Community College Men's and Women's Track & Field teams competed over the weekend, Saturday, February 17th and Sunday, February 18th at the Region VI Championships held at the Harvey Dean Track / Robert W. Plaster Center on the campus of Pittsburg State University. Both the men's and women's teams placed 11th in the region, the ladies scored the most points at a region championship of any other Neosho team in nearly a decade, going back all the way to the 2015 season.
The Region Championships saw a lot of great things, the team had 49 personal best at the meet from 29 different individuals. The biggest highlight of the meet were performances from Joana Vakasobuduru and Landrea Sears in the Women's Pentathlon. Vakasobuduru and Sears finished the meet 2nd and 4th respectively and earned enough points to secure their trip to the NJCAA Championships in Gainsville, Florida. Vakasobuduru was just a few points shy of being the overall region champion in the event but earned the KJCCC East Conference title in the event and Sears the runner-up. Just one week after taking down the 600yd school record Vilorina Tuilawaki broke the 600m school record in 1:39.90, her time is nearing the Fijian national record in the event, she will have one more shot at the NJCAA Championships. The women's 4x400m relay knocked off another 5 seconds and ran the fastest time since the school record was set in the event in 2017. The ladies will have one more chance at a run at the school record at the NJCAA Championships. The men's weekend was highlighted by the 4x800m relay who finished 3rd overall in the region and ran 8:03 to secure themselves as the 4th fastest team in school history. Pedro Mulero also had a big performance for the Panthers in the Heptathlon finishing 6th in the region and moving himself into the top 20 nationally. He will wait and see if he earns a trip into the NJCAA Championship field of 16 as an alternative selection.
Coach Bruton when asked about the finish in the Region, "I am really happy with what we accomplished at the championships and where we are headed as we transition into outdoor season. The program continues to get better and score more points in our region each year, this is the toughest conference in all of NJCAA Track & Field so it is really encouraging to see our performances continue to grow to a higher level. We have been building and getting better each year and this year has been no different each step we take over time is pushing us closer and closer to competing at the big stage. We are outmatched in almost every faucet of the sport by teams in our conference if you are looking at things like budgets, facilities, and raw talent, yet we continue to look for hard working student athletes that may be over looked by others and continue to close the gap. I am really proud of this group, and where we are at, it will be exciting to see where we get to by the end of the year."
