April 15, 2019

Weather Cuts Short Ross Black Invitational

NMJC's Dune Costes runs the 1,500-meters for the Lady Thunderbirds at the Ross Black Invitational on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Hobbs. Costes finished in third place.

The Ross Black Invitational hosted by New Mexico Junior College entered day two on Saturday morning, and due to the weather, was limited to only two events. The javelin and 1,500 meter run for men and women.

A very small crowd braved the cold and rain to cheer on the athletes who participated in the 1,500 meter run. Freshman Dune Costes of France and sophmore Alyssa Frausto of Pennsylvania represented the Lady T-Birds.

Costes finished in third place in the 1,500 meter and Frausto finished in the top 10.

"I felt like they did just ok," NMJC assistant coach Jeff Becker said on his runner's performance. "Some of the other girls in the race ran really, really well. I think if you prepare yourself you could run well in these conditions. It wasn't really bad, but they did alright."

For Costes, the race was an important one as she had missed several recent meets.

"Dune Costes came in third," Becker said. "This is her first race back, she has missed a couple of races. She competed well, she went after it, but she just wasn't able to finish. Once we get the conditioning she will be able to finish."

The Lady T-Birds have two more meets until the NJCAA outdoors championships, which will be held at the NMJC campus. NMJC will participate in the West Texas A&M Invitational on Saturday and the Texas Tech Open on Saturday May 4. Becker is looking to see some improvement from his team before hosting the championships on May 16-18.

"We are looking to continue to improve," Becker said. "We got almost everything qualified that we need but we just need to keep improving."

With the opportunity to host the NJCAA outdoors championship, Becker is hoping that Saturday's weather condition is more favorable at West Texas A&M.

"I sure hope it's not like this," said Becker. "I would rather have hot and windy than this just because hot and windy is what we are use to."

The weather did not cooperate for the T-Birds as they hosted their only home invitational of the season. The meet got canceled for rain and cold shortly after day 2 started. Despite the shortened meet the T-Birds were able to get a few strong performances. In the Long Jump the T-Birds took home the top two spots. Monique Grant won the event with a NJCAA leading jump of 20'10 ½" and Kristal Liburd (#2 in the NJCAA) was not far behind with a jump of 20'1 ¾". In the sprints, Raheema Westfall won both the 100M and 200M races. Victoria Villanueva and Demisha Roswell also won in the pole vault and 100M Hurdles respectively.

National Qualifiers- Monique Grant- 100M and Kyra Atkins- 100M Hurdles

Improved National Qualifiers- Monique Grant- Long Jump

Event Winners- Monique Grant- Long Jump, Victoria Villanueva- Pole Vault, Raheema Westfall- 100M and 200M and Demisha Roswell- 100M Hurdles

Results:

100M

Raheema Westfall 11.77 1^st Place

Monique Grant 11.91 National Qualifier

Yanique Dayle 12.46

Makayla McNeal 13.33

200M

Raheema Westfall 23.96 1^st Place

Erin Sermons 25.02