The Barton Community College men's track and field placed second this weekend at the Region VI/KJCCC Indoor Championships held at the Robert Plaster Center location at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas.
The Cougars won seven of the events over the course of the two day Championship, including a school record and seventeen point placers, in scoring 155 points to finish runner-up to top ranked Cloud County Community College's 172.50 points. Barton also placed behind the T-birds in the Jayhawk West standings with 198 points to Cloud County's 242 total.
Barton added five more national qualifying performances to its list, bringing the Cougars total to thirty for NJCAA Indoor Championships held March 1-2 in a return trip to Pittsburg.
Highlighting the performances was the Saturday morning accomplishment of freshman Alencar Pereira. Leading the weight throw after a second round 19.10m mark, Alencar broke Garland Porter's 2003 record of 19.17m on his third throw of 19.51m. Fouling on his first two rounds of finals but having the Region Championship in hand, Pereira uncorked another record breaking mark to ink his name atop the chart at 19.79m (64-11.25) to also rank second best in the nation this season.
Two of Barton's fourteen personal best efforts came from Davonte Burnett as the freshman was voted the Men's Track Athlete of the Meet. Clocking a nation's sixth best 60m time of 6.702 in the prelims, Burnett placed second in the finals behind the nation's second ranked sprinter Tavarius Wright of Butler Community College. The two would face up again later in the 200m with Burnett claiming the title with a personal best 21.02 in moving up to the third spot on the national chart. Teammate Dartez Hamlin, who ranks fourth nationally, claimed the silver as the sophomore clocked a 21.33 to beat Wright's personal best 21.40.
Another impressive effort on Saturday was the performances of sophomore Nathan Hood in winning a pair of timed events while also meeting national qualifying standards. Entering the 600m for the first time of his Cougar career, Hood not only beat the field with a nation's third best time of 1:18.49 but did so in a program 11th best time while Adriano Gumbs' third placing of 1:20.32 was also a personal best while moving up to 11th on the current national performance list. Later in the day Hood jumped into the program Top-10, running the 1000m for the first time this season to clock a program 7th best and national 2nd best time of 2:29.00. Tallan James, who along with Hood are already nationally qualified in the 800m, added his name to the 1000m event by clocking a personal best 2:34.87 to finish ninth in the event.
Top ranked 60m hurdler Stephon Torrence didn't disappoint, bettering the sophomore's personal best with a 7.96 preliminary time to later take the title in 8.04. Freshman Deshaun Jones wasn't far behind, clocking a personal best 8.08 in prelims before Saturday's runner-up time of 8.10.
Tahj Whitfield, who challenged for the heptathlon title for two days in an eventual third place finish, joined Torrence and Jones in the hurdles in placing fifth giving the Cougars twenty-two points in the event. Whitfield's third place in the multis scoring 4505 points also included winning the shot put in his first time in the event with a 12.38m (40-07.50) while setting a new PR in the long jump at 6.69m (21-11.50). The sophomore was joined by freshman Kaleb Ambrose in the seven different events with Ambrose's 4114 points placing fifth. Like Whitfield in competing in the events for the first time, Ambrose also hit the sand in a personal best effort in the long jump with a leap of 6.08m (19-11.50).
Kenroy Williams and Kyle Mason, Jr. placed second and sixth respectively with Williams' 48.35 time missed the title by .06 while mason clocked a 48.75. The duo will be joined at the national meet by Tyler Allen as the freshman crossed the line in a personal best 49.50 to match the qualifying standards.
In the long jump, both sophomore Timothy Wilson and freshman Tyrone Treadwell set new personal bests in sixth and eighth place finishes respectively with Wilson hitting the sand at 7.23m (23-08.75) while Treadwell reset his best mark at 7.13m (23-04.75). The duo battled it out in the triple jump as well with Wilson's new best of 14.50m (47-07.00) grabbing the eight spot ahead of Treadwell's 13.95m (45-09.25). Both are already qualified in both events for the national meet.
Also previously qualified but setting a new best was Jermaine Francis as the freshman tied his previous and school 10th best effort of 2.10m (6-10.75).
Sophomore Kevin Nedrick won Barton's first individual title of the weekend throwing a season best 17.64m (57-10.50) to capture the shot put competition with Logan Carroll coming in fifth at 14.80m (48-06.75). Nedrick would later also meet the weight throw national qualifying standards with a personal best 15.39m (50-06.00) for sixth place. The effort would help Barton gain nine points in the event, joining Pereira's school breaking record and freshman Phillipe Barnett's third place heave at 17.83m (58-06.00). Barnett fell short of giving Barton another point in Friday's shot put but sill through a person best 13.59m (44-07.00) for ninth place.
The Cougars closed out the meet in dramatic fashion as the top ranked 4x400m relay tandem of Williams, Hamlin, Mason, and Gumbs didn't run their best but was able to win the photo finish title by .22 seconds in clocking a 3:14.03.
Region VI Champions:
Stephon Torrence (60m Hurdles)
Davonte Burnett (200m)
Nathan Hood (600m and 1000m)
Kevin Nedrick (Shot Put)
Alencar Pereira (Weight Throw)
4x400m Relay (Kenroy Williams, Dartez Hamlin, Kyle Mason, Jr., Adriano Gumbs)
