Council Bluffs – Behind a number of record-breaking performances and region titles, the Indian Hills Men's Track & Field squad placed third overall at the 2023 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region 11 DI Outdoor Track & Field Championship.
The Warriors took home a pair of individual region championships to go along with a relay title performance. Sophomore All-American Rivaldo Marshall (Kingston, Jamaica/Calabar) became a four-time individual NJCAA Region XI champion after taking the 800-meter event while Traunard Folson (Jacksonville, FL/Andrew Jackson) captured the 100-meter region title. The men's 4x400-meter relay squad cruised to the region title to sweep the indoor and outdoor events.
As a team, the Warriors scored 116 team points to place third overall behind team champions Iowa Western Community College and second-place Iowa Central Community College. The Warriors saw 16 top-five performances on the weekend to go along with two region records and four school records.
Marshall once again left his mark on the grand stage as the 2023 Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) Track Athlete of the Year captured his fourth region title with a record-breaking performance. Marshall won the 800-meter run in a time of 1:47.35, a new NJCAA Region 11 record and the eighth-fastest 800m time in NJCAA history.
Along with Marshall's performance, teammate Tyrice Taylor (Linstead, Jamaica/Linstead) took home second place in the event, just behind Marshall with a time of 1:47.58, the ninth-fastest time in NJCAA history.
The 800m event was dotted with Warrior competitors as Roneldo Rock (St. Joseph, Barbados/Grantley Adams Memorial) placed fifth overall with a time of 1:51.03 followed by Cole Reinders (Sarnia, Ontario/St. Patrick's Catholic) who placed sixth in a time of 1:52.46. The four 800m marks on Saturday by the Warriors now claim four of the top five times in school history.
Folson, who placed second overall in the 100m prelim round, edged Iowa Central's Ayomide Oyetunji in the championship race with a time of 10.49 to claim the individual title and score 10 team points for the Warriors.
The men's 4x400 relay squad consisting of Chris Johnson (Houston, TX/Cypress Park), Taylor, Ke'vontae Walls-Burdine (Milwaukee, WI/Milwaukee Lutheran), and Marshall shattered the previous region championship record with a time of 3:06.30 to win the title by more than seven seconds. The quartet topped the previous region record, held by the Indian Hills 2021 squad by more than two seconds. Along with Marshall's four individual titles, the sophomore has also been a part of two relay region titles.
Sophomore Dean Clarke (Kingston, Jamaica/Calabar) posted a school record 51.49 mark in the men's 400-meter hurdles to place second overall. Clarke's time topped the previous NJCAA Region 11 mark by 0.15 seconds to set a new Indian Hills standard and break his own previous record by more than a full second. The mark is currently No. 5 in the nation.
Teammate Damien Lewis (Brenham, TX/ College Station) finished behind Clarke with a strong fourth-place showing to place for the Warriors. Lewis clocked a time of 54.46, a national qualifying mark.
Johnson led the Warriors in the men's 400-meter dash with a new personal best time to place second overall. Johnson boasted a time of 46.80, the first sub-47.00 performance of his Indian Hills career.
The Warriors also posted a strong showing in the men's 4x100-meter relay as the quarter of D'Eric Smith (Bridgeton, NJ/Ankeny Centennial), Folson, Nehemiah Ray (Chicago, IL/Brother Rice), and Khalid Hornsby (Greenbelt, MD/Eleanor Roosevelt) clocked a time of 40.25 to score eight team points for the Warriors.
The Warriors saw a pair of third-place individual finishes as CJ McFerrin (Alpharetta, GA/Alpharetta) placed third overall in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.55 after posting a new school record time of 14.37 in the qualifying round.
Woyn Chatman (Little Rock, AR/Little Rock Central) served as the Warriors' top representative in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.30 to place third overall, tying a personal best performance this year. Folson placed fourth in the event followed by Hornsby's fifth-place showing.
Logan Soedt (Eldridge, IA/North Scott) boasted a fourth-place finish in the men's 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:48.33, the freshman's third-best performance of the season to score five team points for the Warriors.
Joge Becerra (Lawrenceville, GA/Mountain View) tallied a personal best mark in the men's 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:11.37.
Freshman Isaiah Valentine (Mason City, IA/Ankeny Centennial) was the Warriors top performer in the jumps events with a fifth-place finish in the long jump. Valentine posted a mark of 6.97-meters
The Warriors will now turn their attention to the NJCAA Outdoor National Championships in Hobbs, NM at the Ross Black Field of Champions. This year's national meet is set for May 18-19.
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RIVALDO'S WORLD ��
— Indian Hills XC/TF (@IHCCrunning) May 8, 2023
Let's take a look back at the year Rivaldo Marshall has had… pic.twitter.com/mRAlTqUz1b
