PITTSBURGH, Kan. — The culmination of the 2017 indoor track and field season for Meridian Community College will begin Friday, as both men and women’s teams will compete at the NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at Pittsburgh State University.  

The men will enter the final meet of the season ranked 17th, while the women will enter ranked 22nd in the latest national team computer rankings compiled by USTFCCCA.

“We are very excited and ready for the national meet and the competition that comes with it,” head coach Chip Gayden said. “This meet will be exciting, because we obviously believe we are better than what the rankings say. We are very young on the men’s side with just traveling four sophomores out of 14 participants, and this meet is about putting everything together over Friday and Saturday.”

The men’s squad will once again depend on their middle distance group, just like they did last year at the championships when the men’s 4x800M relay squad captured a national title. MCC will try to defend their 4x800M relay title with three out of four members of that relay returning. MCC will also look to Tim Hoodlebrink, Kobey Hill and Noah Smith in the open 800M prelims on Friday. All three men are currently ranked in the top 11 in the entries. Rogay Granston will compete in the 600m prelims on Friday. MCC will open the meet in the distance medley relay on Friday afternoon.  The Eagles go in as the seventh-ranked distance medley relay.

“The middle distance squad has really been a great group the last two years,” Gayden said. “Coach Mettler has a group that we believe can defend their relay title, along with put three men in the final of the open 800M that can all score big points for us and have a distance medley relay that can put points on the board.”

MCC will also bolster their team in the sprints, as MCC will see Marcus Reaves and Devarius Turner both contest in the 60M and the 200M prelims Friday. Turner last year as a freshman finished fifth in the 200M at the meet. In the 400M, MCC will turn to two freshmen on Friday as James Burnett and Stephan Holcombe will look to make the Saturday final.    

In the field events, MCC will look to two jumpers in Marrel Parker and R’Darius Edwards. Parker will look to score points for MCC in the long jump on Friday, while R’Darius Edwards will look to score points in the triple jump on Saturday.

On the women’s side, Ashley Henderson will lead the women as she will compete in both the 60M prelim and 200M prelim Friday. Last year, Henderson finished seventh in the 60M and then finished second in the 200M. In the 60m hurdle prelim Friday, MCC will look to two freshmen in Shaliyah Dixon-Tucker and Zaria Husband.

Live results  of the NJCAA Indoor National Championships will be available on the NJCAA website and at heartlandtiming.com. The NJCAA Indoor National Championships will be streamed live at Flotrack.com.