The NMJC Lady T-Birds made history this past weekend at the NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. The team brought home the first ever title for Women's Track and Field at NMJC.

Right from the start the meet turned into an epic battle between two great teams, NMJC and Iowa Central Community College. After nineteen of the twenty events NMJC trailed Iowa Central by two points. In the final event, the 4 x 400 meter relay, NMJC finished with second place for 8 points while Iowa Central came away with third good for six points. This left the score tied at 115 points and since there is no tie breaker in Indoor Track this gave both schools a share of the National Title.

Leading the way for the Lady T-birds was Caroline Jepleting. Caroline brought home the gold in three individual events and one relay. For her great performances Caroline was named the NJCAA Female Track Runner of the Year. Also scoring ten or more points for the team were Keno Heavens, Olivia Lewis (who was 400 meter National Champion), Jordan Brown and Yolanda Suggs.

Overall the team finished with eight National Champions, twenty three All-Americans, and six school records.

For an outstanding coaching job, Head Coach Keith Blackwill was awarded the Co-National Coach of the Meet!!

Caroline Jepleting; New Mexico Junior College
Sport: Cross Country/Track
GPA: 3.35

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Caroline Jepleting of New Mexico Junior College has earned the NJCAA Leaders for Life Student-Athlete of the Week honor.

Jepleting is a team leader for both the cross country and track & field teams at New Mexico Junior College and is always referred to as encouraging and supportive.

Jepleting is from Kosirai, Kenya where she attended the Kapkenda Girls High School before becoming a student at NMJC.

She spends some of her free time volunteering at high school cross country meets and at a local nursing home as an assistant to the activities director.

Her long list of athletic achievements include: three-time Indoor National Champion in the Distance Medley Relay, Mile, and the 1,000 M; four-time Indoor All-American in the Distance Medley Relay, Mile, 1,000 M and 4x400 Relay; three time outdoor All-American in the 800, 1,500, and 5,000; and the 2009 Cross Country National Champion.

While her list of accomplishments athletically is outstanding, she also has strong discipline in the classroom. The Kenya native is a member of the NMJC Fall 2009 Presidents Honor Roll (4.0 GPA) and is on course to earn NJCAA Academic All-American honors.

Outside of being a dominant runner and a driven individual academically, Jepleting is also very passionate about her faith as she is an active member of Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

When her time is up at NMJC, she plans to continue running competitively at a four year university and pursue a nursing degree. Once she has accomplished these things, her next course of action will be to go back to her home country of Kenya and use her degree to help. 

Click here to view entire article from the NJCAA website

BERLIN - Renny Quow , a former NJCAA 400 meter dash champion when competing for the SPC Texans, competed with the best the world had to offer today and will be leaving Germany with a bronze medal after finishing third in the 400 meter dash at the IAAF World Track and Field championships.

Quow appeared to lag behind the field 200 meters into the race, and although he appeared to start picking his competitors off, he still had a lot of ground to make up with 100 meters to go. With a strong finish, and an obviously fatigued Chris Brown of the Bahamas faltering over the final 30 meters, Quow was able to capture the bronze medal with a time of 45.02 seconds behind Lashawn Merritt and Jeremy Wariner, both of the United States and both winners of the last two Olympic games in the event, Merritt in Beijing (2008), and Wariner in Athens (2004).

South Plains College will again have representation on the track when former Texan Latoy Williams lines up to compete in the preliminary round of the men's 4x400 meter relay for his native country Bahamas. The Bahamian squad will be in lane three of the second section, scheduled for 11:55 a.m.

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400 METER RESULTS

HUTCHINSON, Kan. - The South Plains College men's and women's track and field teams added a sweep of the outdoor titles to go along with the indoor titles they won in March. The Lady Texans dominated the meet scoring 142.33 points to outdistance Barton County by 48.33 points. The team scoring was much closer on the men's side as they narrowly defeated Barton County by 4.5 points.

LUBBOCK, Texas - The South Plains College Track and Field teams carried over day one's success to day two as they crowned four more individual champions in seven events to add to the five events they won on the first day of competition. Your Texan and Lady Texan individual NJCAA Champions are: Shakeeri Cole (600, 800), Gladys Chumba (3,000), Kelly Closse (Shot Put, Weight throw), Kelsey Wilson (Pole Vault), Michael Carter (Shot Put), Bryce Brown (55 Hurdles), Renny Quow (400), and Fred Samoei (800, 1,000, Mile). Closse was also named Female Field Event Athlete of the Meet and Samoei was named Male Track Athlete of the Meet.