Laari and Brotherton lead No. 8 Cougars to J.K. Gold Classic 6th place finish

The Barton Community College men's cross country team finished 6th overall Saturday in the small college division of the 66th Annual JK Gold Classic held in Augusta, Kansas.  With 129 total competitors in the 6k race, the No. 8 ranked Cougars took home first and second individual performances while finishing third among fellow NJCAA competitors in a total time of 1:41.52.

Sampson Laari led the Cougars finishing third overall and was the top collegiate runner in a competition including NCAA Division I, Division II, NAIA and NJCAA schools.  After running his first three miles with the lead pack, Laari finished third behind two post-collegiate athletes.  Covering the 6000m course in 18:25.15, Laari's time was just twenty seconds off the top mark of Chris Burnett and twelve seconds from second place finisher Brady Johnson.

Freshmen Devyn Brotherton also had a strong performance finishing 2nd to Laari in fellow NJCAA competitors in 19:35.19 to place 24th overall and 4th in the small college division.  Tony Perez was 66th overall and 34th in the division with his 20:46.89 time, followed by Elder Colindres at 21:19.97 to finish in 84th and 45th in the division.  Brady Holler finish first in a log jam of Cougars at 21:45.00 to finish 97th (53rd division) with Tyler Thornton two seconds behind at 21:47.82 to finish 100th overall (55th division).  Marcus Pastran followed Thornton in 101st place (56th division) in 21:50.82 while Darrius Salmond rounded out the Cougar runners in 105th place (59th division) in a time of 22:02.50.

Among the NJCAA schools, Barton finished third behind Pratt Community College and Hutchinson Community College while finishing in front of Cowley College and Cloud County Community College.

Barton will take a couple of weeks from competition until heading to Lincoln, Nebraska, for the Woody Greeno/Nebraska Invitational to be held on Saturday, September 20.

Complete team results     Complete individual results

More information regarding the J.K. Gold Classic can be found at www.goshockers.com