Lady Cougars have big weekend in Texas, add six more national qualifiers

In just their third indoor meet of the season, the Barton Community College women's track and field team continued their improvement this past weekend at the Masked Rider Open held at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.  The Lady Cougars reached national qualifying marks in six additional events and posted personal bests throughout the day.

The early season superstar on the track Lydia Mato, who already has qualified in both the 3000 meter and 5000 meter, took a break from the long distance to run a national qualifying time of 5:14.07 to finish 8th in the 1 Mile Run.  Teammate Agnes Abu, who is already an 800 meter national qualifier, moved up in distance to finish a slot behind Mato in 9th place in a time of 5:26.35, just a little off a second from qualifying.  Competing in the 800 Meter Run for the first time this season, freshman Tabitha Kim finished 25th in 2:39.13.

In the sprints, freshmen Ambria Avery and Annette Gaskins both competed for the first time this season in the 55 Meter Dash.  Avery finished in 46th place in a time of 7.62 while Gaskins was close behind in 7.66 to finish 49th.  Avery then posted a personal best 26.92 in the 200 Meter to finish 48th while fellow freshman Trenna Cox competed in her first 200 Meter to finish 85th in 30.11.  Kiana Winston also had a good day on the oval just missing the national qualifying time in the 400 Meter finishing in 34th in 1:00.81.  

The Lady Cougars were led in the hurdles by freshman Modesty Lorick, who posted national qualifying times in each of the three rounds.  Lorick's best performance came in the semifinal round breaking the line at 8.36 but was just .02 slower in the finals to finish 7th overall.  Winston just missed national qualifying time by .01 in her semifinal clocking in at 8.61.  Lahni Clifton placed 31st in 9.57 while Cox finished in 38th in 12:02.

Barton shuffled its lineup in the 4X400 Meter Relay team and proceeded to record its fastest time of the season.  The team of Lorick, Abu, Clifton, and Winston posted a national qualifying time of 4:02.66 to finish 15th in the highly competitive event.

In the field events the Lady Cougars also had a good weekend qualifying in three events.  Gaskins met meet standards in the Long Jump soaring to a 6th place finish at 5.40m.  N'Kia Jones placed 12th with a leap of 5.27m while Clifton finished in 24th at 4.75m and Tahje Ochs' 4.27m placed 31st.   Jones came back in the Triple Jump to finish 7th with a national qualifying jump of 11.49m.  Ochs also had a good event, leaping to a personal best 10.09m to finish in 17th place.   Freshman Elizabeth Evans continues her progression in posting a personal best and national qualifying heave of 12.76m in the Shot Put.

Barton will head back to Lincoln, Nebraska, for the second time this season as the Lady Cougars will compete in the Husker Invitational hosted by the University of Nebraska.