Cougars capture season opener with twenty national qualifying performances

The Barton Community College men's track and field team recorded twenty national qualifying performances Friday capturing the Bill Easton Classic.  The Cougars displayed their balanced squad against mostly four-year competition inside the Anschutz Pavilion in Lawrence, Kansas, winning the event with 202 points ahead of host University of Kansas' 194.5.  

McKinely West led a three Cougar assault in the 60m dash bolting down the straightaway for a 6.72 personal best in the preliminary round, following up with a slightly slower 6.74 in finishing runner-up to Under Armour runner John Teeters' 6.66.   A pair of freshman took the third and fifth placings with qualifying times as Samson Colebrooke registered a 6.81 and Terence Ware a 6.94 after clocking a 6.86 in the prelims.

Jermaine Jones had a great start to his sophomore season continuing his progression clocking a personal best and national qualifying 8:09 time in a runner-up 60m hurdle finish.  Fellow sophomore Louis Rivers also had a good day clearing the hurdles clocking a qualifying 8.40 in the prelims before an 8.48 taking eighth place in the finals.

The Cougars also had three in the top five of the 600 yard run with freshman Deandre Jobe winning the event with a national qualifying time of 1:13.39.  Sophomore Javon Patterson took the second placing with a 1:14.43 time while Kemarni Mighty made his Cougar debut with a fourth place 1:14.64 clocking.

In the field events the Cougars had four national qualifying marks led by the sophomore throwing duo of Ricky Nelson and Stevon Crooks.  Nelson hit two marks on the day, hitting a personal best 16.94m weight throw to finish fifth before ending the day with a sixth place finish in the shot put at 15.09m.  Crooks' one event of the day was a big one as well, launching a 16.57m personal best shot put heave finishing only behind Kansas State University's Brett Neelly's 17.90m throw.  Enrique Martinez was another new face in the Cougar uniform making a splash in a debut, placing seventh with a qualifying mark of 15.78m in the weight throw.

Barton entered two teams in the 4X400m relay to cap the day's activities earning a fourth and seventh placing.  The tandem of Michale Reyes, Colebrooke, Patterson, and Deshon Buchanan rounded the Bill Easton Track in a national qualifying time of 3:21.48 while the squad of Marquise Hill, Adam Levarity, Jones, and Christian Lyon finished in 3:26.60.

The Cougars return to the oval on Friday in the two-day Holiday Inn Invitational held on the campus of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska.