Barton men's track and field shines at Red Raider Open, Coke and Gutierrez make program impacts #GoBarton

The second meet of the indoor season for Barton Community College men's track and field team produced big results Friday competing at the Texas Tech Red Raider Open held in Lubbock, Texas.

Going up against some of the best competitors in the nation at the NCAA and NJCAA levels, the Cougars came away with eight personal best efforts while adding five new national qualifiers.

Highlighting the performances were a pair of Cougars making their mark in the program's all-time top ten list.

Defending NJCAA indoor long jump champion Shakwon Coke made his 2022 debut in a big way, soaring to a program fourth best distance of 7.80m (25-07.25) in taking over the new season's top spot in the NJCAA. Marking a pair of 7.47m jumps throughout his attempts, Coke left it all on the runway in his sixth and final jump to land the 7.80m distance to place second overall of the twenty-four athlete Open field to Nike athlete Steffin McCarter's 7.83m (25-08.25).

Giovanni Gutierrez placed first of the junior college athletes entered in the fifteen man shot put field, finishing sixth overall with a program tenth best heave of 16.84m (55-03.00). The mark took over the NJCAA's season leaderboard, just ahead of teammate Brandon Lloyd's 16.63m mark the freshman put up in his season debut. Lloyd didn't quite reach that mark in consecutive weeks, but did place seventh in the event behind Gutierrez with a 15.96m (52-04.50).

Daylin Williams also had a big spotlight performance, making the 60m hurdle finals out of twenty-eight competitors in placing 6th overall behind five NCAA athletes with a time 8.07. Adjusting for altitude, the 8.09 time currently ranks 4th on the NJCAA season list.

The Cougars' next meet is in Topeka, Kansas, for the two-day Washburn Open and Multis beginning on Friday, January 28, at the Washburn Indoor Athletic Facility.

Other National Qualifying Performances:
Jye Gillard: 11th in 600 Yard Run (1:12.17) *Converts to 600m time of 1:20.23, ranking 8th nationally
Almond Small: 2nd in 200 Meter B-Section (21.59) *Converts to 21.66 for altitude, ranking 8th nationally
Telron Bradford Jr.: 5th in 400 Meter B-Section (48.57) *Converts to 48.68 for altitude, ranking 8th nationally

Complete 2022 Red Raider Open results