Former Holmwood Technical runner Tahj Hamm was a double winner for Iowa Western Community College at last weekend’s National Junior College Athletics Association (NJCAA) Region 11 Indoor Championships hosted by Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa.

There were 11 Jamaican individual event winners at the Region 11 and Region VI championships that was held at Robert W Plaster Center, Pittsburg, Kansas over the weekend.

Hamm won the men’s 200m and 400m at the Region 11 championships. There were also wins for Denzs Simmonds, Jazmine James, Britney Brown, Tyrese Taylor and Rivaldo Marshall.

Hamm ran 21.56 seconds over the 200m with Iowa Western teammate Romario Northover, formerly of Calabar High, placing fourth in 23.14 seconds.

He also ran 47.94 seconds over the quarter-mile with Northover placing fifth in 49.55 seconds.

Iowa Central’s Brown, formerly of Edwin Allen High, won the women’s 600m in 1:43.67 seconds while Taylor of Indian Hill won the men’s 600m in 1:20.58 seconds. Marshall, also of Indian Hills, took the 1000m in a meet record 2:25.93 seconds, under the 2:29.16 seconds set in 2020 by Kelvin Bungei of Iowa Central.

Simmonds, the former Calabar High ISSA Champs winner, won the men’s shot put with 16.53m for Iowa Western while former Excelsior High athlete Brandon Gayle was third with 14.92m.

James, who attended Petersfield High, threw an Iowa Western school record and personal best of 14.79m to retain the women’s shot put to complete a 1-2 with teammate Shakera Williams who threw 14.13m.

Williams, who attended Holmwood Technical, was also fourth in the women’s weight throw with 13.03m.

Daniella Deer of Iowa Western won the women’s 400m in 56.92 seconds.

At the Region VI championships, there were five Jamaican winners as former St Jago High standout Kay-Lagay Clarke of Barton County College won the women’s long jump with 6.05m with teammate Brittania Ingram placing fourth with 5.65m.

Ingram, the former Edwin Allen athlete, won the women’s triple jump with 12.20m with Clarke third with 11.72m.

Trevor Gunzell of Coffeyville Community College won the men’s shot put with 18.26m, beating his former Edwin Allen High teammate, Christopher Young of Barton who threw 17.50m for second; Brandon Lloyd of Barton was fourth with 16.37m and Christopher Brown of Hutchinson Community College sixth with 15.36m.

Lloyd the former Clarendon College thrower, was second in the men’s weight throw with 19.12m; Brown formerly of Petersfield was fifth with 17.1m; Young was sixth with 16.93m and Gunzell eighth with 16.59m.

Former Jamaica College runner Fabian Campbell of Barton won the men’s 600m with 1:18.91 seconds and was second in the 1000m in 2:28.41 seconds.

Tara Bert, who was an ISSA Champs finalist with Rusea’s High and Vere Tech, won the women’s 800m for Colby College, running 2:23.67 seconds.

Danae Nembhard of Barton was second in both the women’s 60m hurdles and 60m, both times behind Miracle Thompson of Barton.

Nembhard and Thompson had to be separated by the thousandth of a second after they both ran a meet-record 8.29 seconds in the hurdles with Clarke third in 8.72 seconds. Nembhard also ran 7.59 seconds in the ‘flat’ 60m.

Former Wolmers Girls’ athlete Tahisha Thompson of Cloud County was fifth in the women’s weight throw with 11.97m; former St Mary High runner Abigail Pinnock of Cowley College was fourth in the women’s 600m in 1:38.79 seconds and former Petersfield High runner Kayly Guthrie of Highland CC was eighth in the women’s 200m with 29.25 seconds.