Young Lady Cougar track and field finishes third at Region VI, freshmen take home meet awards
The Barton Community College women’s team took home the third place trophy as the Region VI Outdoor Track and Field Championships wrapped up Saturday in Arkansas City, Kansas. After finishing fourteenth at last year’s meet, the young and upcoming Lady Cougars made their mark in climbing to third and also finishing second in the Jayhawk West conference standings.
The Barton Community College women's team took home the third place trophy as the Region VI Outdoor Track and Field Championships wrapped up Saturday in Arkansas City, Kansas. After finishing fourteenth at last year's meet, the young and upcoming Lady Cougars made their mark in climbing to third and also finishing second in the Jayhawk West conference standings.
Barton started the three-day event with the two-day Heptathlon as Modesty Lorick took third place with a total of 3950 points. Fellow freshman Trenna Cox had a good event as well with multiple season bests to finish just out of the points with a ninth place finish at 3336.
Freshman discus thrower Elizabeth Evans had a tremendous day in the cage throwing personal bests in three of her six throws to finish in fourth place. Evans exceeded her best throw of the season coming into the meet by nearly four meters throwing a 45.15m to wrap up the event. Evans also competed in the shot put finishing tenth with a 11.64m throw.
The distance duo of Lydia Mato and Agnes Abu continued their assault on the region. Mato, who captured every event and honor she could get in the indoor season, scored the most points in the meet winning two events and finishing second to Abu in two other events. Abu captured the Athlete of the Meet for her two individual championships, a second place, and helping the 4 X 400m relay team to a fourth place finish.
Abu picked up a second place finish in the 400m crossing the line in the 400m at 56.94 while teammate Shay-Ann Holness grabbed two points coming in seventh at 59.30. Abu and Mato battled it out in the 800m with Abu coming out on top turning in a 2:15.13 while Mato took second in 2:18.10. The duo went at it again in the 1500m as Abu took first in 4:49.28 while Mato came in second at 4:55.01.
Mato captured her first championship Friday evening in the last race of the day blowing away the competition in the 10000m by nearly two minutes in a casual 40:55.21. Mato also had another convincing win in the 5000m winning by twenty seconds crossing the line in 20:39.73.
Barton got two hurdlers in the 100m Hurdle finals with Kiana Winston placing fifth in a time of 14.81. Modesty Lorick, who ran 14.80 in the preliminary round did not compete in the finals. Holness led Barton in the 400m Hurdles with a third place finish at 1:05.21 while Winston took home eighth in a time of 1:06.58.
In the relays the Lady Cougars scored two points with a seventh place finish in the 4 X 100m as the team of Cox, Lahni Clifton, Lorick, and Winston crossed in 51.96. Barton also grabbed five points for the fourth place finish in the 4 X 400m as Abu, Clifton, Lorick, and Winston clocked at 4:11.18.
Bethany Bowman jumped 1.56m in the high jump earning the two-sport athlete a third place finish and six points on the board.
N'Kia Jones made the long jump finals but fell just out of the points finishing ninth at 5.28m. Tahje Ochs just missed the finals with her 5.27m leap finishing in eleventh place. Jones improved in the long jump earning three sixth place points with a leap of 11.34m while Ochs finished in thirteenth at 10.45m.
Barton will next head to Lincoln, Nebraska, for the Nebraska Invitational on May 10 before turning their sights to the NJCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field National Championships held May 14-17 in Mesa, Arizona.