Andres-Dougan, Kupka break school records at conference and region meet

Competing at the Region VI/Jayhawk Conference Indoor Championships Saturday and Sunday in Pittsburg, KS, the Cowley College men and women's track and field teams both placed second in the conference.

Fort Scott Community College took home the conference title on both the men and women's side. The Fort Scott men were also region champions, while Barton Community College was the women's region champ.

The Lady Tigers finished fourth in the region and the Tiger men placed fifth.

"Our region is like a mini national meet," Cowley head coach Cameron Rieth said. "We knew it would be a dog fight. We did well in a lot of areas, we just were not as deep as some teams."

Sophomore Diego Andres-Dougan broke his own school record in the 60-meter hurdles not once, but twice. Andres-Dougan ran a time of 7.94 in the prelims before posting a time of 7.92 while finishing as the conference and region champ.

"It was amazing to see Diego go under eight seconds twice," Rieth said.

Lady Tiger freshman Isabella Kupka hit the national qualifying mark in the 400-meter dash with a school record time of 57.31. The Cowley women also had region champions in the weight throw (Kayla McClellan), pole vault (Arantxa Cortez), and the 4x800-meter relay (Delicia Boothe, Andrea Garcia-Gonzalez, Dhennifer Vaz, Abigail Pinnock).

Other Cowley conference champs on the men's side were Jaden Schneeberger in the weight throw, Luke Faulkner in the pole vault, and Felipe Mentz in the multi. Randy Rojas was a new national qualifier in the 1,000-meter run.

Lady Tiger conference champs were Andrea Garcia-Gonzalez in the 5,000-meter run and Jamilet Bautista in the shot put. Abigail Pinnock (600-meter run) and Garcia-Gonzalez (5,000-meter run) were new national qualifiers.

"I thought both teams were solid," Rieth said. "We left some points out there, but had a lot of personal bests."

Cowley's national qualifiers will now prepare to compete at the NJCAA National Indoor Championships March 2-4 in Topeka, KS.

"We are excited to see how we do," Rieth said. "We have the potential to do well in several events, but it will be tough. We will need some things to go our way."