Cougars close fall semester with three school records at KC Crown Classic #GoBarton

The Barton Community College swimming teams closed out their fall semester this past weekend, competing over three days of action at the KC Crown Classic held at Topeka's Hummer Sports Park.

Battling through morning prelim sessions and evening finals, the Cougars pieced together their most complete showing of the season, with the men taking fifth and the women seventh. Across the three-day slate, Barton amassed three school records, 14 program top-10 times, 44 personal bests, and five season bests to cap its first semester schedule with significant momentum heading into the holiday break.

Women's Recap
On the women's side, Barton was led by the sophomore tandem of MaKayla Baxter and Katy Alvarez, who combined for multiple program top-10 impacts, personal bests, and team's highest individual finishes across the three-days of competition.

Baxter paced the Cougars individually, producing three new personal bests and Barton's top finish of the weekend. She placed 11th in the 400-yard IM with a personal-best 5:30.88, the seventh-fastest time in program history, while adding a 15th place showing in the 1650-yard freestyle at 19:56.68. Baxter concluded her week with additional lifetime bests of 6:08.18 in the 500-yard freestyle and 2:38.04 in the 200 IM prelims.

Alvarez followed with two program top-10 breaststroke impacts, highlighted by a 19th place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke where she lowered her time to a 1:14.57 personal best, the sixth-fastest mark in program history. The sophomore produced a 16th place outing in the 200-yard breaststroke, touching in 2:47.13 for another personal best that ranked eighth all-time.

Barton also added a pair of program top-10 relay performances. The 200-yard medley relay team of Avery Stewart, Alvarez, Baxter, and Jocelyn Hamilton placed ninth overall, cutting two seconds off the prior best with a 2:14.09 to remain eighth quickest in history. The four pack of Irene Lara, Baxter, Stewart, and Alvarez concluded the weekend with another program impact, delivering a 2:05.07 in the 200-yard freestyle relay ranking ninth-fastest in the program book.

Overall on the weekend, the Cougars rounded out the meet with 14 personal bests and two-season bests across the lineup. Stewart clocked a 1:00.85 personal best in the 100-yard freestyle, Hamilton adding PB's in the 200-yard freestyle (2:37.18) and 100-yard freestyle (1:10.18) and Lara delivering PBs in the 50-yard freestyle (34.71) and 100-yard freestyle (1:18.77) to complete the weekend's highlights.

Complete KC Crown Classic Results

Men's Recap
Freshman Caio Ribeiro delivered one of the most dominant showings in program history, shattering three school records while capturing two event titles and producing three top-three finishes. C. Riberio opened his weekend by lowering his own 500-yard freestyle record, winning the event in 4:28.98, before adding a second gold with a 1:37.18 swim in the 200-yard freestyle. He completed his record-setting weekend in the 100-yard freestyle, clocking a 44.94 in Saturday's finals session for his third school mark of the meet.

C. Ribeiro added a strong finish in the 1650-yard freestyle, placing fifth in 17:02.11, the sixth-fastest time in Barton history.

The Cougars added several notable performances to complement C. Ribeiro's record-setting weekend. Ricardo Marques produced a breakout three days, beginning with a 50.11 in the 100-yard butterfly prelims for a personal best and fifth-quickest time in program history before returning to add career best showings in the 100-yard backstroke finals at 55.59 and 200-yard butterfly prelims with the program's fifth quickest 1:54.02

Javier Vargas Hidalgo added a strong set of finals performances, highlighted by a 10th place, 1:43.47 personal best in the 200-yard freestyle to move to sixth all-time, along with a ninth-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle with a 46.89 for ninth on the program chart.

Mateo Wallet advanced to multiple sprint finals, notching season best times of 21.58 in the 50-yard freestyle, 1:44.85 in the 200-yard freestyle, and 47.12 in the 100-yard freestyle.

Barton also produced strong results on the relay side, as the 800-yard freestyle quartet of Wallet, Joao Ribeiro, Vargas Hidalgo, and C. Ribeiro placed fifth with a 7:01.82, for the fourth-fastest time in program history. The 400-yard freestyle relay of J. Ribeiro, Cameron Sein, Wallet, Vargas Hidalgo adding another highlight with a 3:11.97, ranking seventh all-time.

In total, the Cougar men compiled 30 personal bests and five season bests, with significant improvements from Connor Watson, Sein, J. Ribeiro, Juan Gonzalez Gomez, Gabriel Taylor, Kaiden Dalton, and Skyler Fair, each delivering notable drops across prelims and finals.

Complete KC Crown Classic Results

Following the holiday break, Barton returns to competition on January 16th at the Warrior Invitational before continuing its road swing the next day at the Community College Quad on January 17th.