Barton's Nedrick named National Field Athlete of the Year leading 41 Cougar All-America merits #GoBarton #RoarCougs

The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) has announced their outdoor awards with the Barton Community College track and field team earning the nation's second most All-America merits with a haul of 41 honors.

Headlining the honors was Kevin Nedrick as the sophomore helped lead Barton to a national runner-up at the 2019 NJCAA Outdoor Championships to earn the National Field Athlete of the Year. Scoring twenty-six points, the University of Minnesota signee won the discus title to go along with silver placings in both the shot put and javelin. Ranking seventh best in NJCAA history with a regular season mark of 57.18m (187-7), Nedrick also owns the NJCAA's fifth farthest shot put heave of 18.66m (61-02.75) for the third straight year the program's mark has been rewritten under Head Coach David Schenek. No slouch in the javelin either, Nedrick only competed in the event four times in his two-year Barton career, improving each time on the runway leaving his national runner-up mark of 60.04m (197-00) as ninth best in program history.

The Cougars' runner-up placing at the end-of-the-year Championships were joined by the women at this past week's NJCAA Outdoor Championships held in Hobbs, New Mexico, acquiring the silver medal finish for the squad to cap off another successful season overall for the program.

Forty-six personal best efforts were turned in throughout the three-days of competitions including four individual national championships and ten runner-ups among its twenty-two scoring efforts.

In addition to Nedrick's accomplishments, other individual national titles were school record performances by Alencar Pereira in the hammer throw and Kenroy Williams in the 400m hurdles, with Fiona Richards' runner-up in the women's discus throw also retaking the program's top historical spot.

Pereira's 70.21m (230-04) mark shattered the hammer throw meet record while posting the world's No. 82 farthest throw of the season and rewriting his home Brazil's under-23 national record.   Read More  See Video

In three of the four hurdle events, Barton won two titles on the men's side with one coming from the women's as the trio of victories recorded top ten performances in Cougar history. Williams closed out his final 400m hurdle race claiming the stadium record and taking over the program's top spot in clocking a record 49.96 time to also rank ninth best in NJCAA history. Stephon Torrence was also impressive in the 110m variety, continuing his dominance of both the indoor and outdoor season for a winning 13.51 time to rank second best in Barton history and fifth best in all-conditions of the NJCAA.

Another model of consistent excellence was the performance of Yoveinny Mota. The freshman placed runner-up in the finals however in the process, clocked times of 13.247 in prelims and 13.245 in the finals to rank second best in Barton women's history and sixth best in NJCAA history.

Also ranking among the NJCAA's best, Richards marked a discus runner-up 53.15m (174-04) as the freshman not only checked in at the NJCAA's fifth best slot but took over the top spot in program history. Also collecting silver hardware in the event, men's freshman Phillipe Barnett placed behind Nedrick in second by solidifying a program fourth all-time best mark with a personal record of 55.47m (182-00).

Other assaults on the women's Barton record book came from freshman T'Nia Riley's 200m runner-up clocking of 23.24 to rank sixth all-time in program history and tenth best NJCAA all-conditions while joining Nijah Roberson, Mota, and Deborah Giffard to clock a runner-up 44.98 in moving into the tenth best time slot in Cougar history.

In regional awards given out by the USTFCCCA, Barton earned four of the eight Central Region prestigious honors with Mota earning the women's track athlete of the year while Pereira was named the field athlete of the year on the men's side. The Cougars also swept the women's coaching awards with David Schenek earning the head coach honor and Mark'Quis Frazier selected for the assistant coach of the year award.

A two-time recipient of the USTCCCCA National Athlete of the Week, Mota clocked a Region VI meet record 13.31 to break a twenty-one year region record of 13.49 set by fellow Cougar Daveetta Shepherd at the 1998 event. The freshman's time also hit the 6th fastest all-conditions slot in NJCAA history and is second fastest in on the program's best efforts.

Rewriting not only the Barton record book throughout his freshman campaign, Pereira has been etching his name on the national level with a leading hammer throw of 68.31m (224-2) while posting 11 of the other 12 farthest throws in NJCAA history.

In his 10th season at the helm, Schenek led the Cougars to their fourth straight Region VI title winning six of the twenty-two events. Ranking No. 1 in the country, Barton had thirty-two qualifiers for the national championships including Region VI Field Athlete of the Meet and heptathlon champion Arianna Hayde and Track Athlete of the Meet Christal Mosley following a 200m and 400m double title achievement.

In his second year as the Cougars' assistant coach, Frazier's stable of athletes include six in the top-15 of the 100, five in the top-20 in the 200, three in the top-6 of the 400 and two in the top-12 of the 110H which includes the national leader in the hurdles event. Frazier's relay teams have also been impressive with the both the 4×100 and 4×400 squads leading the nation. Frazier's athletes combined to score 89 of Barton's 183 points at the Region VI Championship leading to Barton's fourth straight title and 32nd in the program's history.

Student-athletes earned USTFCCCA All-America status by virtue of finishing among the top-8 in their events, including as a member of a relay team, at the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Hobbs, New Mexico, while coaching honors were voted and selected by coaches within the USTFCCCA.

All-Americans (Women)
Of the twenty-five All-America honors earned by the Lady Cougars at the Outdoor Nationals, Riley led the way with four point earning performances with sophomore Nijah Roberson earning three.

Cadeebra Calcote: 800m (2nd), 4x400m Relay (2nd)
Sharikae Campbell: 100m (7th)
Deborah Giffard: 4x100m Relay (2nd)
Arianna Hayde: Long Jump (8th), Heptathlon (3rd)
Latavia Maines: Shot Put (4th)
Christal Mosley: 200m (7th), 400m Relay (7th)
Yoveinny Mota: 100m Hurdles (2nd), 4x100m Relay (2nd)
Tracy-Ann Powell: Long Jump (7th)
Fiona Richards: Shot Put (5th), Discus Throw (2nd)
T'Nia Riley: 100m (2nd), 200m (2nd), 4x100m Relay (2nd), 4x400m Relay (2nd)
Nijah Roberson: 400m (3rd), 4x100m Relay (2nd), 4x400m Relay (2nd)
Azan Sargusingh: 400m (6th), 4x400m Relay (2nd)
Aquila St. Louis: 100m Hurdles (6th), Heptathlon (4th)

All-Americans (Men)
On the men's side, the Cougars sixteen All-American awards were led by Nedrick's national championship and pair of national runner-up placings.

Kaleb Ambrose: Decathlon (7th)
Phillipe Barnett: Discus Throw (2nd)
Davonte Burnett: 4x100m Relay (8th)
Dartez Hamlin: 200m (4th), 4x100m Relay (8th)
Nathan Hood: 800m (3rd)
Deshaun Jones: 110m Hurdles (7th), 400m Hurdles (6th)
Kyle Mason, Jr.: 4x100m Relay (8th)
Kevin Nedrick: Discus Throw (1st), Shot Put (2nd), Javelin (2nd)
Alencar Pereira: Hammer Throw (1st)
Deondre Spruill: 4x100m Relay (8th)
Stephon Torrence: 110m Hurdles (1st)
Kenroy Williams: 400m Hurdles (1st)

Visit the USTFCCCA website for more information including a full list of honors and awards.