Tiger indoor track and field teams set to open season in Topeka

The Cowley College men and women's indoor track and field teams are excited about the upcoming season as they have added some talented freshmen to go along with several returning athletes. The Tiger indoor track and field teams will open the season Saturday at the Washburn University Rust Buster in Topeka, KS.

Cowley head coach Cameron Rieth is looking forward to see how his team does in the season-opener as the Tiger men are the defending conference champions and the Lady Tigers are coming off a second place conference finish.

"We would love to have as many national qualifiers as possible, but mainly we just want to blow off some competition rust and work off all of those beginning of the season jitters and butterflies," Rieth said. 

The Tiger men return nine individuals that earned All-American honors during the 2021 indoor and outdoor season. Highlighting the list of returning athletes is Adrian Diaz-Lopez, who set the indoor and outdoor school record in the 5K and was the national champion in the 3,000-meter run.

"Anytime you are bringing back All-Americans from the previous year, it's a great thing to have," Rieth said. "It is also great to be bringing back a two-time national champion and two-time school record holder in Diaz-Lopez."

Other returning athletes are Diego Andres-Dougan, Dawson Crawley, Richard Whatley Jr., Edwin Olvera, Nathaniel Hubbard, Goran Duijsters, Ahmed Brown, Simeon Faagai, Santiago Nunez-Gonzalez, Xoel Rodriguez-Abad, Nicolas Aguado-Torres, Jean-De Dixon, Jeremy Garcia, Joaquin Gonzales, Caleb Liermann, Corbin Liermann, Edgar Reyes, Joel Rodriguez, Arnau Sagrera-Barnet, Arcine Thompson, Aidan Wells, and Miles Yallop III.

"I think we should be solid all around," Rieth said. "Coach (Glenwood) Edwards has really got the throwers side rolling again, which we are excited to see how they contend over the course of the season. We have a lot of depth on that end. Coach Parker (Ray) has a solid group overall with his multi's, pole-vaulters and jumpers. Then we should be leaning big time on our middle distance/long distance squad come championship time."

Freshmen expected to make immediate impacts are, Felipe Mentz, Luke Faulkner, Abner Johnson, Mario Garcia Arroyo, Jacob Coronado, Tyefe McIntosh, Dylan Roe, and Conner Kaplinger.

Other freshmen on the team are, Charles Barlow, K'Anthony Benjamin, Tommaso Bruni, Trevor Green, Gabe Maui, Aaron Medrano, Keorapetse Nkopane, Slade Roberts, Jaden Schneeberger, Basheer Suied, and Muneer Suied.

"We feel like we brought in some kids that can make an impact at the regional and national level," Rieth said. "We have some guys we are very excited about having them here. We are looking to build on the moves we made last year as a team. We have depth, we just need to perform and stay hungry."

The Lady Tigers return four All-Americans, Karissa Glover, Channa Hines, Ashley Goforth, and Delicia Boothe. Other returning athletes are, throwers Chloe Wilson, Kyra Choice, and Rashanna Thorne, as well as Yazmin Reyes, Shardenai Davis, Alayna Love, Kayla McClellan, Karstyn Nolan, and Sarah Robinson.

"Our goal every year is to be in contention to be conference and regional champions," Rieth said. "However, I think that is tough to say year to year, because so much can change. We have a formula that we feel is best for our team based on our facilities and resources. We have some depth; we have the holes filled where we want them, which makes it hard not to be excited about this year. If we continue to build and develop our athletes and limit injuries, I think we can be up there."

Freshmen added to the roster are, Allison Caitlin, Alejandra Handie, Abigail Pinnock, Arantxa Cortez, Genique Bassett, Jacie Carson, Asaris Dandicourt-Goire, Andrea Garcia-Gonzalez, Chloe Grusing, Bernesha Knowles, McKenna Markle, Abigail Pinnock, Yazmin Reyes, Abby Rueschhoff, Dajian Salmon, Gracie Shire, Lashae' Smith, Kristen Wilson, and transfer Layla Ingalls.

"Our goals are focus on what we can control," Rieth said. "We want to continue to develop in all aspects and take care of the small things to avoid injury. Then to compete to the best of our ability when those times come. We want to keep up the momentum of what we did in the fall during cross country and hopefully build on that success coming in to track. Our coaching staff is looking forward to seeing how they compete."