by JON DYKSTRA The Iola Register | March 8, 2017
PITTSBURG — The Allen Community College track and field team has once again out-performed expectations at the NJCAA Indoor National Championships.
Coming into the national meet in Pittsburg, the Red Devils were projected to finish 16th on the men's. Instead, Allen finished 11th overall.
"It was really a great meet for the men and women," Allen coach Vince DeGrado said. "All and all, considering we aren't a fully operational track program, we are just in a few events."
On the men's side, it was a much more balanced effort to earn the
11th-place finish.
"It was different people stepping up for the men," DeGrado said. "It wasn't like one girl scoring all the points, it was a team effort."
Ka'ven Berry was the top finisher for the Red Devils with a third-place showing to earn All-American honors in the 600-meters.
Berry broke the school-record in the preliminaries with a 1:19.64 and then broke it again with a 1:18.75 in the finals.
"Ka'ven has run that race three times and set a new school record each time," DeGrado said.
Anthony Glasgow, Carlton Tarpley, Ryan Yarde and Philip Lagemann combined to take fourth in the distance medley relay. They finished with a 10:18.04.
The team suffered a setback in the 4x800-meter relay when they were battling for the lead going into the final leg, but a bad exchange led to dropping the baton and costing the Red Devils nine seconds. Despite that, the team still managed to finish fifth with a 7:52.47.
"It took us about eight to nine seconds to figure out how to pick up the baton and right when we did the out teams came flying," DeGrado said with a laugh. "I'm not saying we would have won the national title, but at worst we would have gotten second."
Glasgow, Yarde, Chris Martin and Vinny Butera made up the 4x800 team.
The Red Devils also had a very good showing in the 4x400-meter relay with Berry, Martin, Tarpley and Ke'Voughn Manning taking seventh with a 3:15.9.
Sophomore Ricardo Banuelos finished fifth in the 5,000-meter run with a 14:42.6 which is a new school record.
"That was a huge P.R. for Ricardo," DeGrado said. "He ran against the same guys he did for cross country."
Philip Lagemann also set a school record by taking sixth in the mile with a 4:18.9.
In addition to his relay contributions, Glasgow had a strong performance in the 800 meters. He took sixth overall and set a school record with a 1:54.83 in the preliminaries.
Butera took ninth in the same race with a 1:57.85.
Men - Team Rankings - 20 Events Scored
1) Iowa Central 124 2) South Plains 104.5 3) Barton County 70.5 4) Butler 53
5) Hinds 52 6) Central Arizona 42 7) Cloud County 38 8) Coffeyville 35
9) Western Texas College 32 10) Meridian 27 11) Allen County 26 12) Trinidad State 25 13) Mesa 22.5 14) Paradise Valley 19.5 15) Vincennes 18 16) Pima 15 17) DuPage 11 18) Monroe College 10 18) North Iowa Area 10 20) Dodge City 8 21-T) Hutchinson 6 21-T) Louisburg College 6 23-T) Hagerstown 5 23-T) Cowley County 5 25-T) Essex 4 25-T) Indian Hills 4 27-T) Arkansas Baptist 3 27-T) Garden City 3
MEN
M Distance Medley Relay
4th, 10:18.04 (Anthony Glasgow, Carlton Tarpley, Ryan Yarde, Philip Lagemann)
M 5000m
Ricardo Banuelos – 5th, 14:42.60 – New School Record
Paul Becker – 10th, 15:23.51
M 600m prelims
Ka'ven Berry – 3rd, 1:19.64 – New School Record in prelims
M 800m prelims
Anthony Glasgow – 6th, 1:54.83 – new personal best in prelims
Vinny Butera – 8th, 1:55.12 – seasonal best in prelims
Chris Martin – 17th, 1:57.04 – seasonal best in prelims
M 400m prelims
Carlton Tarpley – 30th, 49.89 – personal best
Ke'Voughn Manning – 32nd, 50.44
M 4x800m relay
5th, 7:52.47 (Anthony Glasgow, Ryan Yarde, Chris Martin, Vinny Butera)
M 600m Finals
Ka'ven Berry – 3rd, 1:18.75 – New School Record – NJCAA All American
M 800m Finals
Anthony Glasgow – 7th, 1:55.94
Vinny Butera – 9th, 1:57.85
M 1mile Run
Philip Lagemann – 6th, 4:18.90 – New School Record
Jesus Gutierrez – 22nd, 4:28.53
M 4x400m relay
7th, 3:15.90 (Ka'ven Berry, Chris Martin, Carlton Tarpley, Ke'Voughn Manning) – Seasonal best