Salas-Lozano Earns Runner-Up, T-Bird W-T&F in 6th After Day 1 

The T-Bird women's track & field team finished Day 1 with two individual All-Americans and one relay All-American squad. The Thunderbirds sit in 6th place overall after Day 1 with 17 points. Barton County leads the championship with 37 points.

Thrower Esteisy Salas-Lozano finished runner-up in the shot put with a school-record throw of 15.19m. Salas-Lozano took down her previous school record by .09m. The finish added eight points to the T-Birds team total.

Long jumper Kavel Ritchie came in third place with a season-best mark of 5.93m. The freshman long jumper bested her previous jump earlier this year by .37m. Ritchie's third-place mark came on her fifth attempt and was .21m behind the champion from Barton County Chloe Perryman. Ritchie's third-place finish puts six points on the board for NMJC.

The distance medley relay team of Vanessa Gallegos, Ysanne Peart, Jayne Elvin, and Lisanne Schapendonk placed sixth in the DMR with a time of 12:14.48. The finish earned the T-Birds three points. 

Moving over to Saturday's slate, NMJC will have 11 athletes competing in 11 events along with two relay teams.

The T-Birds have two athletes competing in the high jump Saturday morning. Achol Maywin is the top performer for NMJC coming in at No. 3 in NJCAA for high jump with a leap of 1.72m. Daniel Hines is the second T-Bird in the flight and is ranked No. 10 in the NJCAA with a leap of 1.65m.

Thrower Tania Millena Ancelmo Da Silva begins Saturday as the school record holder in the weight throw with a toss of 19.23m. The throw is No. 1 in the NJCAA for the event. Millena Ancelmo Da Silva will be in the second position in flight two.

Fresh off her All-American finish Kavel Ritchie will ready herself for the triple jump. Ritchie is ranked No. 8 in the event with a jump of 11.67m.

Kamaria Knight made the 60m finals after posting the second-fastest time of prelims with a 7.50 finish. Knight will be in lane 5. Hurdler Maliah Edwards made it through the prelims of the 60mH with a time of 8.70. The finish puts her in lane 6. 

The T-Birds have two teammates in the 400m finals. Dejona Simpson will be in the first heat with Nandy Kihuyu. Simpson is in lane 5 after making it through the prelims with a 55.94. Kihuyu made it through prelims with a 56.10 and will hold down lane 3.

Jody Ann Mitchell had perfect race in the prelims for the 600m. Mitchell finished with the top time at 1:33.54 and will start in lane 5 in the second heat of the 600m finals.

NMJC has two athletes in the mile finals. Lisanne Schapendonk and Vanessa Gallegos are in the second heat. Schapendonk qualified for the mile with a time of 5:08.56 (NJCAA No. 17) and Gallegos came into the race with a time of 5:15.90 (NJCAA No. 26). 

The Thunderbirds are competing in two relays on Saturday. The first will be the 4x800m relay where NMJC is ranked No. 2 in the NJCAA with a composite finish of 9:11.21.

The T-Bird 4x400m relay squad will compete in the last race of the day on Saturday in the mile relay. The Thunderbirds are ranked No. 1 in the 4x400m relay by more than 2.5 seconds with a time of 3:40.05.

Day 2 starts with the high jump at 10:45 a.m. EST and ends with 4x400m relay at 3:55 p.m. EST. For the full schedule click here, for live results click here, and for the livestream of the events click here.