The Barton Community College women's track and field team placed sixth at the NJCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field National Championships held the past three days in Hutchinson, Kansas. The sixth place finish follows a fifth place finish for Barton at the NJCAA Indoor Championships held in March as inclement weather forced over four hours of delays in the meet's final day Saturday. Lydia Mato won three events bringing her outstanding Barton track and field career win total to twelve national championships as the Lady Cougars scored 45 points which also included eight points from Tamara Style in the 400m Hurdles, four points from Tasha Frazier in 100m Hurdles and Long Jump, and three points coming from the 4X400m Relay team.
In the most dominant career in Barton history, Mato was the talk of the meet easily winning all three of her events to close out her Lady Cougar track career. The excitement began on Thursday night as the Ghana sophomore easily lapped the field in the 10,000m Run for a 2.5 minute margin victory. In what could have been a training session especially considering the competition looming in her two upcoming events, Mato hit the track focused on making a mark. Mato did just that crossing the line in 35:27.23 shattering the 1984 school record of 37:50.81 set by Bonny McCleland, breaking the Gowans Stadium record, and fell just twenty seconds shy of setting the all-time NJCAA Championship record.
Cruising to the fastest qualifying time in Friday's 1500m, Mato returned on Saturday easily winning the title by seven seconds in a fourth best school time of 4:33.84. Saving perhaps her best performance for last and waiting with the rest of the 5000m field through the rain delay, Mato took little time heating back up lapping the field for a dominant 16:39.37. The time not only reset her school record for the fourth time, but broke the stadium and all-time NJCAA Championship meet record.
Style also saved her best individual performance for last clocking a 1:00.44 personal best time in the 400m Hurdles as the Florida freshman finished second earning the Lady Cougars eight points.
After setting a 100m Hurdle personal best 14.09 in the prelim round, Frazier couldn't quite match the speed in finals settling for eighth place in a time of 14.33. Earlier in the day Frazier had a chance to add to her Region VI Indoor title in the Long Jump but would have taken a personal best as the freshman from St. Louis fell just short finishing sixth with a leap of 5.63m (18-05.75).
The 4X400m Relay Team of Widline Lageroy, Style, Oneisha Glover, and Danashka Lawrence improved one spot from the qualifying round placing sixth in the final race around the wet track coming in at 3:51.14.
Complete results can be found here