Wranglers Set to Compete at NJCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships
For the first time since 2003, the Odessa College Wranglers will compete at the NJCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships. The 2025 NJCAA Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships will be held at Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, TX on March 7-8, 2025. Fourteen OC track and field athletes have qualified to compete in Lubbock against the best in the nation.
The 2024-25 academic year is the first season back with cross country and track and field, since the program was eliminated 20 years ago. Coach Chris Beene has led the resurgence for the once dominate program to once again become a power program within the NJCAA. OC finished 8th nationally in cross country, in both men and women, and will look to improve upon that finish at the 2025 indoor track and field nationals.
Highlighting the OC women will be national cross-country champion Elizabeth Ilanda competing in the mile, 3000K and the 5000K. The national performance list has Elizabeth ranked in the top five nationally in all three events. Another OC athlete with a great chance to win a national championship is Millicent Wafula, currently listed in the top three in both the one mile and the 3000K competition. Kaydeen Johnson, Lilian Mateo and Salma Saddoug will also compete for Odessa College at nationals, with all three ranking in the top 10 in their respective distance event.
Odessa College will have nine competitors on the men's side at the national indoor championships. National cross-country runner up Mohammed El Youssfi and OC newcomer Justus Kiplagat are ranked as the top two runners in both the 3000K and the 5000K. The Odessa College contingent includes five athletes ranked in the top ten nationally in their respective events. The OC men will compete multiple events on the track, including several relays.
Currently Odessa College is in the first year of a three-year plan to rebuild the cross country and track and field program to full strength. Cross country and distance events in track are currently the only disciplines at full strength in terms of funding and individual student-athletes. OC Athletic Director Wayne Baker stated, "Coach Beene and Coach Blackwill have elevated our program at an unprecedented pace. We could never have imagined multiple top ten national finishes in the first year back competing on a national level."
The first final for OC will be the men's distance medley relay, scheduled for a 1:50pm start time at the Texas Tech Sports Performance Center in Lubbock, TX.
For more information on the 2025 NJCAA Men's and Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships visit: https://www.njcaa.org/championships/sports/track-ind/index