The Barton Community College track and field team won a combined nine events Saturday against competitors from over thirty teams at the Emporia State LaQuinta Inn Spring Invitational.
The team entered just nine different events of the one day meet with the men's squad capturing five of theirs to lead the team scoring with 82 points while the women won four and nearly another in a slim runner-up placing to accumulate a meet 2nd best 90 points.
Beginning the track events with the 4x100m relays, the Cougars swept both the men's and women's titles. The women's tandem of Nijah Roberson, Christal Mosley, Anitria Sangster, and Sharikae Campbell bettered the field by over a second in clocking a 46.77. The Cougar men were also impressive in their outdoor debut with Davonte Burnett, Tyreke Wilson, Kyle Mason, Jr., and Dartez Hamlin passing the baton around the oval in 40.74 seconds to win by .21 of a second.
The next track event Barton competed in was the short track hurdles with Yoveinny Mota clocking a program 5th best time of 13.44 to win the women's 100m version with Stephon Torrence capturing the 110m men's race in a program tenth best 13.86.
The squad also nearly swept the 400m titles with Adriano Gumbs' 48.75 time winning the men's race but Jahphiah Gilliard coming just .14 seconds shy of the women's title in clocking a 58.00 flat time.
Kenroy Williams gave the Cougars a sweep of the 400m events, leading three Cougars in the top six with a winning 52.74 clocking as Deshaun Jones placed fourth in 56.31 and Torrence's 57.32 crossing in 6th.
Other winners on the women's side included Mosley's 200m title in 24.29 and in the 100m where indoor national athlete of the year T'Nia Riley began the outdoor season with a winning 11.63 to lead five Barton women in the top seven placings of the event. Kaytie Black finished in 3rd at 11.74 to edge out Deborah Giffard's 11.77 while Campbell and Roberson placed 6th and 7th in 12.09 and 12.13 times respectively.
In the field events, fresh off shattering the school record a week ago, Alencar Pereira didn't reach the mark this week but put a good enough throw of 61.65m (202-03) to win the event by six feet.
The Cougars didn't come away with victories in the shot put but did mark some impressive distances. On the women's side the Cougars placed 2nd and 3rd with Fiona Richards recording a program 5th best toss of 14.70m (48-02.75). Latavia Maines, who holds the school record at 16.46m, placed behind Richards in the standings marking a 14.40m (47-03.00) toss. Kevin Nedrick placed third for the men with a 17.29m (56-08.75) toss falling less than two inches shy of his program 4th best throw.
Barton will stay in the state of Kansas for its next meet, traveling to Arkansas City for Saturday's Cowley Tiger Invitational.
Complete ESU Spring Invitational results