Behind seven personal best efforts Saturday the Barton Community College men's team took third place out of eighteen teams in the Black race division of the FHSU Tiger Open in Victoria, Kansas. The No. 22 ranked Cougars had four runners within the top thirty-five of the 185 competitors covering the 8k course held at the Sand Plum Nature Trail.
Sampson Laari, who has established himself as one of the top distance runners in Cougar history, again led the Cougars with school seventh best time of 25:16.1 to place third behind Iowa Western Community College standout Sylvester Barus and unattached runner Craig Hunt.
Having set a personal record last week at the Chile Pepper Festival, Elder Colindres reset his new personal best shaving off twenty-fives seconds coming in 24th with a time of 26:52.5. Also rewriting his personal best freshman D'Corian Williams shaved off thirty-six seconds coming in two slots and two seconds behind Colindres in 26:54.7 for 26th place. Competing in his first meet of the season, Devyn Brotherton took home the 35th spot at 27:10.6.
Two additional Cougars cracked the top-100 led by Marcus Pastran's 75th place coming in at 28:07.40. Morgan Feemster grabbed the 81st place as the Ellinwood freshman eclipsed his personal best by twenty-five seconds crossing in 28:12.2.
Rounding out the Barton entries, all four Cougars set personal bests. Tyler Thornton's 29:13.6 led the way for 119th place while Anthony Forrest took off almost a minute and a half from his previous best finishimg 146th in 30:17.8. Treavon Ware also shaved over a minute off his previous best crossing in 31:53.3 for 168th place while fellow freshman Robert Portice had the largest improvement finishing 176th in 33:07.5 which was 2:20 faster than his personal best.
Barton's next scheduled competition won't come until Saturday, October 31, when the Cougars travel to Overland Park, Kansas, for the Region VI Championships.