LAWRENCE — Friday’s performance at the Region VI/Jayhawk Eastern Division Championships brought in a proverbial armload of school records for Allen Community College’s indoor track team.
Nine Red Devil athletes earned All-Region VI or All-Jayhawk Conference status with their marks, while seven school records fell.
Headlining for the Red Devils were Region VI champs Dakota Parker in the mile run, with a time of 4 minutes, 23.11 seconds; Bruce Barclay, in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.21 seconds; and Terika Henry in the women’s 400-meter dash with a time of 57.65 seconds. All are school records, ACC coach Vince DeGrado said.
Friday’s meet served as both the Region VI and Jayhawk East championships, DeGrado noted. Thus, the regional champs also are Jayhawk East champions.
“I really am pleased on how our teams competed,” DeGrado said. “We nearly eclipsed what our projected point totals were supposed to be.”
“Dakota Parker had one of the most exciting finishes in th emeeet, when he won a three-person ‘sit-and-kick’ race in the mile.”
Barclay, meanwhile, set a standard for future Red Devil athletes with his 60m hurdles championship.
“To win a Region VI title as a freshman in an event Allen typically isn’t strong inis huge,” ACC assistant coach Tony Davis said. “Chris Donald, Rickcardo Bailey, Kelvin Gant and Rodrick Simmons all stepped up to score some decent points.”
As for the distance runners, Tegan Michael and Evan Adams each “came up big” in the 800-meter run, DeGrado sai.
Ryan Pulsifer qualified for nationals in the 5000-meter run in what DeGrado called one of the toughest races of the day. Typically, runners in that race will run at a slow pace in order to compete elsewhere. That didn’t happen.
“Ryan sacrificed himself to push the pace .. to keep the e race honest.”
The strategy paid off with a conference title and national qualifying mark.
Kevin White’s 1600-meter leg in Allen’s medley relay also allowed Allen to win conference, DeGrado said.
“We competed very well,” DeGrado said. “A lot of the athletes in our region and conference will be national champions and all-Americans next week, so I’m very pleased for us to finish as well as did.”
DeGrado also carried high praise for Davis, who was hired in July and was able to bring the sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers in a short amount of time.
“To see them compete against seasoned teams gives us a lot of promise for the future,” DeGrado said.
