It wasn't the best of weather weekends for out track and field in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but like the other Arkansas Spring Invitational competitors at John McDonnell Field, the Barton Community College men's track and field team battled through rain and several suspensions coming away with some notable achievements. Placing twenty amongst the top-ten in multiple events, the Cougars captured four individual titles, in addition to, recording two performances falling amongst the best ten performances in school history.
Those two performances came in the field events led by freshman Sanjae Lawrence's top national effort in the shot put, capturing the meet with a school fifth best mark of 17.37m (57-00.00). Sophomore Stevon Crooks fell short of his personal best but still placed sixth in the meet at 15.75m (51-08.25) to rank eighth nationally. Like Crooks, Ricky Nelson didn't quite reach his personal best but still came away with an individual title, capturing the discus throw in a nation's second best 52.66m (172-09) which also fell within the top ten best throws in school history.
With the two of the four individual championships coming in the field events, Barton grabbed two more in the short sprint events. McKinely West and Samson Colebrooke led four Cougars in the top eight placers in the 100m going 1-2 with the nation's sixth and eighth fastest times of 10.57 and 10.60 respectively. Christian Lyon took seventh in 10.77 with Chedlin Sagesse finished eighth in 10.87. Lyon, having won the 100m last week in Emporia, made it two consecutive weeks with a gold finish, taking Saturday's 200m in a nation third best clocking of 21.30.
The Cougar 4x100m relay team continued their strong start to the outdoor season bettering last week's time by over a half second finishing second to the Trackwired Elite team. Mixing up the lineup a little, Colebrooke led off the team being joined by West and Sagesse with Ware taking the anchor to clock a 40.18 for the nation's second best time, .41 seconds behind the Elite squad.
Barton also looked strong in the hurdles with three in the top five of the 110m event and two in the top ten of the 400m. Jermaine Jones' 14.71 just beat out Charlie Forbes' personal best of 14.80 for second, while Kevin Turner was an eyelash behind in fifth with a 14.81. Marquise Hill led the 400m contingent finishing seventh with a personal best and nation's tenth best time of 54.74 while Michale Reyes grabbed the tenth spot with a 56.32.
The Cougars also had three placings in the top four in the jump events with Alvin McCray in third place in the high jump at 1.95m (6-04.75) and Bradley Fleurinord and Alfredo Smith finishing in third and fourth in the long jump, each reaching 6.79m (22-03.50).
Complete results from the Arkansas Spring Invitational can be found here.
Barton's next action will come Friday and Saturday as the Cougars travel to Canyon, Texas, for the West Texas A&M Classic and Multis.