SHAWNEE, Okla. – The Rogers State Men's Track & Field team claimed three conference championships and two school records at the 2019 Great American Conference Track & Field Championships hosted at Oklahoma Baptist University.
 
The Hillcats dominated the sprint events, claiming the 100, 200 and 400-meter dash victories. Alfred Thomas won two individual championships, smashing his own school record in the 200-meter dash. Thomas ran a time of 20.77, breaking his old record by .49 seconds, while winning the event by .06 seconds.
 
Thomas also nearly broke the school record in the 100-meter dash as he again won the conference championship by .06 seconds with a time of 10.38. The seniors time was just .01 off of D'Jiron Lilley's school record of 10.37.
 
Lilley also scored in the 100-meter dash, finishing in sixth with a 10.77.
 
Quintin Powell claimed the individual championship in the 400-meter dash on Saturday. Powell closed a gap of nearly 10 meters over the final 100 to win with a 47.36, edging out the victory by .02 seconds. His time was also just .22 seconds off of his own school record.
 
Baffour Kyem claimed the other school record for the Hillcats at the championship meet, breaking one of the oldest program records in the long jump. Kyem cleared a distance of 7.01 meters to finish sixth overall in the event, breaking the school record by .23 meters, or nine inches.
 
Kyem also narrowly missed a fourth conference title for the Hillcats, finishing second in the triple jump. Kyem cleared a distance of 14.75 meters, his second longest jump in program history.
 
Nick Williams grabbed a pair of podium finishes for the Hillcats during the weekend. First, Williams ran to a third-place finish in the 3000-meter steeplechase, finishing with the second fastest time in program history at 9:37.42, missing his own record by 1.06 seconds.
 
Williams then wrapped up his championship weekend with another third-place finish in the 5000-meter run. Williams finished with a time of 15:42.67. Colton Green took eighth in the event with a time of 16:14.30.
 
Byrun Ratliff finished with a pair of top-eight finishes in the event. Ratliff led the Hillcats with a fifth-place finish in the 1500-meter run, finishing with a time of 4:03.52. Ratliff took eighth overall in the 800-meter run finishing with a 1:58.81, just 1.5 seconds off the school record.
 
Seth Whittington earned the Hillcats other top-eight finish in individual competition. Whittington took seventh overall in the 10,000-meter run, crossing the line with a time of 33:37.65.
 
Rogers State also earned a top-five finish in the 4x400-meter dash, running a time of 3:17.19 for fifth overall.
 
The Hillcats will return to action on April 26-27, competing in the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.