KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – The 2024 Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Outdoor Track & Field Championships came to a close this evening in southern Oregon, as the Corban University Men's and Women's programs concluded the two-day event with ninth and seventh place finishes, respectively. The Warriors saw a single student-athlete crowned as an individual conference champion this afternoon, as redshirt sophomore Kayla Morgan leapt to a women's high jump title and set a handful of records in doing so.

To view the final Corban results from the 2024 CCC Championships, click HERE.

"We had a successful end to our conference season today," explained Corban head coach Todd Bos. "Both of our 4x400m relay teams ran big season bests and finished higher than predicted. Kayla winning the high jump was the performance highlight of the meet, setting a new conference record in the process."

Coach Bos carried on with his conference meet analysis by stating, "We will be taking three individuals to the national meet and the returning athletes are tasked with improving during the upcoming summer season. We still have a lot of improvements to do as one big program. Again, all glory to God for this tremendous conference season!"

Entering as the number one overall seed to begin the event, Morgan was followed closely behind by a contingency of student-athletes who were all capable of hoisting the individual trophy by day's end, four of whom had already qualified for the national tournament themselves. However, until this afternoon, Morgan had been the only member of the twelve-athlete event to hit the 1.68m mark to signify an NAIA "A" standard qualifying mark.

After the first eight high jumpers had either worked their way up to 1.56m and passed or fouled out, Morgan, Southern Oregon University's Abi Stevens, and Lewis-Clark State College's Jennah Carpenter all began their push for a CCC title at 1.59m. By the time the group had reached the 1.68m mark that Morgan had hit earlier this season, she was the only one to have cleared the heights of 1.59m, 1.62m, 1.65m, and then 1.68m on her first attempt. With Carpenter fouling out at 1.68m, all that remained was Morgan, Stevens, and Eastern Oregon University's Lizzy Grandle.

The trio all attempted 1.71m for what would eventually stand to be the conference winning height, with all three failing on their opening attempts. However, Morgan would clear the bar with ease on her second try to force Stevens and Grandle into "make-or-go-home" situations. Four failed attempts later, and Morgan would clinch the first conference championship in just her second complete season of competition. She would go on to give 1.74m a run but came up just short in her three tries.

Her 1.71m leap was a first in a variety of ways for the Sisters, Oregon native, with the first being that she now holds the first, second, and third best jumps in program history, with her 1.72m leap back in April just barely holding the edge for the top result. In addition, 1.71m is the new facility record for Moehl Stadium at Oregon Tech by a landslide, and also just narrowly by a single centimeter, breaks the CCC Championship record that was set by Carpenter back in the spring of 2022.

Multiple Warriors joined Morgan and saw themselves appear in the top ten placers for their respective events, including sophomore DJ Armstead who earned himself an eighth place finish in the men's 100m sprint today to add to his sixth place finish in the 400m race yesterday.

Also earning top ten finishes on the men's side was senior William Cordero in the shot put who launching the rock 13.80m to earn three team points for his program, while redshirt sophomore Anthony Salisbury worked his way up the leaderboards to claim a 54.26m hurl in the javelin throw another Corban fourth place finish.

As a complete unit, the Warriors had a quartet of fourth-place finishers over the weekend, a third-place steeplechase runner, and one conference champion represented by Morgan. Her conference crown and senior Samantha Dara's third place finish in the women's steeplechase yesterday represent the two All-Conference student-athletes for the Navy and Gold in the Klamath Basin this weekend.

Eastern Oregon clinched both the men's and women's team titles in two completely separate fashions, as their men ran away with the championship at 176 points, while their women snagged the conference crown by just half a team point over the University of British Columbia, 192.5 to 192. For Corban, the gentlemen finished in ninth place out of eleven programs with 27 team points, while the ladies concluded the weekend in seventh with 33.5 points.

In addition to Morgan and Dara, true freshman Jack Gladfelter, who's been rehabbing from a minor injury setback and thus was unable to compete this weekend, will all have the opportunity to make their mark on the nation in less than two weeks from now. The trio will finish their training for the spring season prior to heading to Marion, Indiana for the 2024 NAIA National Championships that begins on May 22nd and stretch to the 24th. More details on the three Warriors heading to the national championships will be available in the coming days.

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