The Barton Community College women's track and field team placed fifth over the weekend at the NJCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships held at The Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Lady Cougars scored 63 points surpassing last year's 52 points being led by Lydia Mato and Vanessa Style combining for five national championship titles.
Winning three individual indoor championships last season, Mato entered into her name as a legend in junior college track and field winning an unprecedented four individual events. Beginning the drive for four on Friday, Mato posted the fifth best time in school history winning the 5000 Meter in 17:52.10 and twenty-one seconds better than her nearest competitor. Four hours later Mato was equally impressive dusting the competition by seventeen seconds in capturing the 3000 Meter in 10:10.73 recording the eight best time in school history. Mato wasn't done with her day as thirty-minutes later Mato posted the fastest 1000 meter time of 2:58.45 which also hit the school history book in the ninth slot.
Returning for day two, Mato went out and emphatically took the Mile Run beating the competition by eleven seconds crossing the line in 5:03.35 for the eighth best time in school history. With all eyes on a historical quest for four titles, Mato had her closest race of the nationals winning the 1000 Meter by a mere second and half in 2:58.42 clocking the ninth best school mark set on Friday.
Ranked second coming into the meet, Style won her 60m Hurdle championship in photo finish style taking the title in 8.394 seconds in winning by the slimmest margin of .005 seconds. Style just missed out on earning more points for the Lady Cougars crossing the 200 Meter finish line just .03 seconds too late finishing ninth at 24.76.
Tasha Frazier, the reigning Region VI Champion, set another personal best mark in the Long Jump with a 5.88m (19-03.50) leap in her first attempt to finish second in the nation. Coming off a seventh place finish in her first meet of the year in the Region VI Championships, N'Kia Jones earned a point on the national stage hitting an 11.42m (37-05.75) mark on her first attempt to finish in eighth place.
Setting a personal best in the preliminary round, Brooklyn Polk exceeded her best by nearly a second in the final round of the 400 Meter finishing eight in 56.68.
Barton picked up their final points in the final women's race of the day at the 4X400 Meter Relay team of Polk, Widline Lageroy, O'Neisha Glover, and Tamara Style took sixth in 3:51.05.
The Lady Cougars will now turn their attention to the outdoor season beginning March 20 at the John Mitchell Alabama Relays in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Complete results can be found here