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Two Highland CC Track Athletes Qualify for Nationals

By Mike Smith

05/09/2012

Highland Community College will be sending two track athletes to the national track meet in Levelland, Texas coming up May 15th-17th. Mary Kate Taylor (Chillicothe, MO) and Rebecca Hasenkamp (Solider) qualified for the national Division I Junior College track meet.

Mary Kate Taylor took home a decisive win in the 10,000 meter, which is 6.2 miles, at Regionals as she took control of the race with four laps to go and went on the win the event with a time of 43:56.12. Taylor also competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in which she qualified for national, too. In only her second time running in the event Taylor took home a fourth place finish at regionals with a time of 12:54.37. Her performances earned her All-Conference honors.

Taylor's teammate Rebecca Hasenkamp also earned herself All-conference honors as she qualified for state in after finishing third in regionals in the javelin throw, after taking second in that competition in the conference meet. Hasenkamp marked a throw of 116'-04" to take third at regionals and one of her previous throws as her currently ranked fifth nationally.

There were many other top performers at regionals on both the men's and women's track teams for Highland CC.

For the women: Leslie Ostertag (Troy) who finished 4th overall in the heptathlon (including multiple 3rd place finishes in a few the events); Amanda Pickman (Bendena) place 8th in the long jump; Kiedra Wade (St. Louis, MO) placed 5th in 100-meter and 8th in 200-meter dashes; Lisa Scholz (Denton) placed 7th in discus and 10th in hammer throw and Highland Relay team placed 6th in region in the 4x100-meter relay.

For the men: David Keach (Neodesha) placed 6th in the 10,000-meter run; Keith Edmonds (Easton) placed 9th in the 10,000-meter run; Aaron Harris (Ashland, VA) 5th in the 110-meter hurdles and 7th in the 400-meter hurdles; Nelson Kawano (Rock Creek) 9th in the 400-meter hurdles; Derrick Schluter (Maryville, MO) 9th in the high jump and 4th overall in the decathlon (including a 1st place in the 1500-meter run in the decathlon) and Josh Harden (Coral Springs, FL) 9th in the long jump and 7th in the triple jump.