Cougar Track and Field qualify four for national competition at season’s first meet

Four members of the Barton Community College men's track and field team met national qualifying marks at this past weekend's Holiday Inn Invitational held on the campus of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska.  

Barton was traditionally strong in the sprints as two Cougars reached NJCAA Indoor qualifying standards. Sophomore speedster David Winters appeared in mid-season form, sprinting to a 21.59 third place finish in the 200 meters while freshman Mike Simmons also qualified with a 22.18 which was good for eighth place.  Shadrack Adu-Gyamfi also competed in the event but was disqualified for a lane violation.    Fellow freshman Will Brown also had a strong debut finishing ninth in the 60 meter dash in a national qualifying time of 6.97.  Jaiden Brown finshed in 21st place at 7.10 while Courtland Robinson's 7.33 was good for 35th.   James Johnson competed in the 400 meters, breaking the tape at 52.09 for 34th place.  

Freshman Sampson Azumah Laari led the mid-distance runners with a national qualirying time of 1:56.84 in the 800 meters to finish in eighth place.  Larned freshman Zach Wilson, who also ran cross country for the Cougars in the fall, finished in twenty-eighth place in a time of  2:06.75.  Fellow cross country runners Brady Holler and Tyler Lumpkin also competed in events with Holler taking twenty-first in the 1000 meter run with a personal best 2:43.38 while Lumpkin ran a 4:39.64 for eighteenth place in the 1 mile run.   Raymond Robinson competed in the 600 meters but was disqualified for a starting block violation.   The Distance Medley team of Lumpkin, Laari, Jamal Henson, and Kole Stiner finished in fourteenth place in a time of 11:02.89.

Freshman Alireza Rafiei was the lone Cougar to compete in field events, finishing in sixteenth place in the shot put with a throw of 47-10 (14.58).

The Cougars return to action on Friday as Barton will compete in the one-day Jayhawk Classic hosted by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.