Hutchinson CC Sports Information
MONROE, Louisiana – Freshman David Thid became the second Hutchinson Community College athlete to win a national championship this weekend and the Blue Dragon men earned a Top 10 finish at the NJCAA Division I Track and Field championships for the first time in six years on Saturday at the University of Louisiana-Monroe.
Thid became the first Blue Dragon ever to win an individual national championship in the 400-meter hurdles on Saturday, doing so with a school-record time of 50.76 seconds.
The Blue Dragons scored 12 points on Saturday to secure a 10th-place team finish with 26 points. That's the most points scored since 2018. The last time the Dragons placed nationally in the Top 10 was a ninth-place performance in 2018.
Thid qualified for Saturday's finals with the third-best time in the preliminary round of 52.72 seconds. The Blue Dragon freshman saved his best for last, breaking his own school record with a national championship time of 50.76 seconds. His winning margin was by 0.85 seconds over Fort Scott's Chamar Smith.
Thid is the second Blue Dragon to win an event national title this season, joining Chris Johnson, who on the pole vault on Friday. That's the first time the Blue Dragons won two national event titles in the same season since 2011 when John Talbert won both the discus and hammer, doing so at Gowans Stadium.
Now the 54th overall event national champion in Blue Dragon men's track and field history, Thid is the first Blue Dragon to win any hurdle event national title since Duane Zerger in 1953. Zerger won the 220-yard low hurdles title.
The final points of the 2024 championship game from sophomore thrower Jack Losew in the javelin.
Losew and teammate Noah Raigoza both had PRs on Saturday. Losew finished seventh in the championship with a career-best throw of 186 feet, 7 inches, bettering his career best by seven inches. Raigoza placed 12th with a career-best 170 feet, 5 inches, the first time he has surpassed 170 feet in his career.
The Blue Dragon closed out the 2024 championship with a pair of runners in the 5,000 meters. Titus Kiprotich, who earlier in the championship, broke the 10,000-meter record, placed 14th in the 5,000 meters with a time of 14:54.04. Freshman Farrin Mangelson was 21st in a time of 15:31.11.