Track season is already upon us for the Allen Community College Red Devils as coach Vince DeGrado’s squad opened the season at Missouri Southern in Joplin on January 20 and 21.
Freshman Paul Becker highlighted the team’s performance in Joplin with an 18th-place showing in the mile. Becker used a strong final lap to win his heat with a 4:33.08.
Ke’Voughn Manning also had a strong first meet of the season. The sophomore finished 16th out of 120 competitors in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.96 seconds. Manning followed that up with a 7.06 second performance in the 60-meter dash to take 19th out of 107.
Last weekend, the Red Devils had a doubleheader with a meet on Friday in Lawrence — the Jayhawk Classic — and on Saturday in Pittsburg — the Pittsburg State Invitational.
Eddie Gutierrez had the top performance of the day for the Red Devils in Lawrence. The freshman took second in the mile with a 4:34.93.
Sophomore Ka’Ven Berry was third in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.47 seconds. Manning took eighth in the same race.
The highlight on the women’s side from Lawrence was freshman Ciara Bennett, who tried the long jump for the first time since a practice jump in high school. Bennett showed the coaching staff enough that she will remain a jumper for the team.
In Pittsburg, Kaitlyn Shoemaker broke the school-record in the 5,000 meters with a 17:29.93. That got her second in a loaded field.
Becker followed Shoemaker’s lead in the men’s 5,000 meters with a 15:07.34 to finish third overall. That mark puts him second in the Red Devil record book.
Berry finished sixth in the 600 meters with a 1:12.29 and Chris Martin was 15th with a 1:13.92
The men’s 4×400 team — Vinny Butera, Martin, Manning and Berry — qualified for the NJCAA national meet with a time of 3:17.65. The women’s distance medley relay — Abby Steinhauser, Vicky Ibarra, Keshema Fleming and Shoemaker — also qualified for the national meet with a time of 12:58.38.
Red Devils start season strong
