MANHATTAN — Allen County Community College’s Tsianina Whitetree and Gabby Ruiz took the saying “going the distance” literally Sunday. The two runners went to the front of the field in the 3,000-meter race and stayed there.
Whitetree hadn’t qualified for the NJCAA National Indoor Track Meet in the event heading into Sunday’s 2012 Region VI/Jayhawk Conference Indoor Track Championships.
She is now.
Whitetree edged her teammate by three seconds to claim the Region VI and Jayhawk Eastern Division championship in the women’s 3,000 meters. She ran the race at Ahearn Fieldhouse at Kansas State University in 10 minutes, 50.80 seconds.
Ruiz, who was running for a faster seed time at the national meet, took second in the region and Jayhawk East ranks.
“Gabby and Tsianina put on a clinic in the 3,000-meter run. They gave the rest of the region and conference schools a taste of what is in the near future distance wise from Allen County,” said Vince DeGrado, ACCC head coach.
“That was a 22-second personal best for Tsianina and Gabby just keeps getting faster each week.”
For the Allen County men, Tegan Michael, Garrett Colglazier and Josh Whittaker went 5-8-15 over in the men’s 1,000-meter race. That translated to 2-3-6 among Jayhawk East runners.
Michael and Colglazier hit national qualifying times in the race. Michael ran the distance in 2:38.85 with Colglazier on his heels at 2:39.80.
Whittaker finished in 2:45.91. Colglazier placed sixth overall in Region VI and third in Jayhawk East in the 5,000-meter race. His time was 16:11.92.
“That was a personal best for Garrett in the 5,000. I believe he will go faster,” DeGrado said.
Also for the ACCC men at the Region VI/Jayhawk Conference meet, Travis Venniro placed 16th overall and ninth in the Jayhawk East in the shot put. He had a distance of 38 feet, 2 inches.
Christian Muniz ran the 60-meter dash in 7.67 seconds. That was 32nd overall.
Next up for the ACCC athletes is the NJCAA national indoor meet March 1-3. The meet is at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill.
Whitetree and Ruiz are qualified in the 5,000 and 3,000 meters on the women’s side. Michael will compete in the 800 meters, 1,000 meters and the mile. Colglazer is qualified in the 5,000-and 1,000 -meter runs.
