Lady Cougar track and field with sixth place national finish, Barton captures three individual NJCAA titles

The Barton Community College women's track and field team placed sixth at the NJCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field National Championships held in Levelland, Texas, following up the same finish at the national indoor meet.  With cool and rainy conditions sweeping across the Texan Track and Field Stadium, the Lady Cougars came away with three individual championships led by freshman standout Ayesha Champagnie's titles in the heptathlon and javelin while sophomore Tasha Frazier saved her best performance of her Barton career capturing the long jump title.  The duo combined for forty-one of the Lady Cougars' 52 points to double-up the nearest fellow Region VI team score as five new personal bests were recorded with three coming from freshman performances.

Standout heptathlon athlete Ayesha Champagnie didn't have her expected dominant performance but was still well above the competition with a 549 point victory racking up 5201 points.  The freshman from Jamaica won both the shot put (13.31m, 43-08.00) and javelin (45.61m, 149-08) events while taking second in the first two of the seven events in the 100m hurdles (14.42) and high jump (1.59m, 5-02.50).  After winning the shot put, Champagnie finished up her day with a third place 200m finish in 26.10 to lead by 103 points through the four events.  Beginning the final day with a fourth place in the long jump (5.42m, 17-09.50), Champagnie put the event away easily outdistancing the competition in the javelin (45.61m, 149-08) before coasting to the title with an eighth place 800m finish (2:40.31).

Champagnie wasn't finished with her second day of the competition clocking a 14.34 in the 110m hurdles to qualify for Thursday's final while jumping back to the ring immediately following the race going on to throw a personal best 14.23m (46-08.25) grabbing a point with her eighth place finish.  Champagnie finished her inaugural season on Thursday beginning the day with the javelin title (45.10m, 147-11) before clocking a 14.54 time in the 100m hurdles grabbing the eighth position and securing her 22nd point of the meet for the Lady Cougars.

Helping the 4x100m relay team qualify for the finals from the leadoff position, Tasha Frazier had the legs warmed up joining Champagnie by qualifying in the hurdles.  The sophomore from St. Louis later hit the run way leaping to a personal best 6.25m (20-06.25) claiming the long jump title following her runner-up finish from the indoor season.

In the final day of competition, Frazier was rejoined by her teammates Sabrina Mason, Tamara Style, and O'neisha Glover recording a faster finals time than the preliminary round finishing the 4x100m relay race in fifth place at 46.58.   Frazier capped her Barton career with another personal best taking second in the 100m hurdles clocking a 13.81.

Glover would earn her second relay top-6 honor wrapping up the championships in the 4x400m relay running third behind Rian Robinson and Brooklyn Polk handing the baton to Widline Lageroy as the tandem exceeded their seeding grabbing sixth place with a 3:45.48 time.

In addition to Frazier and Champagnie's personal best efforts, two freshman also struck for personal best efforts.  Chenelle Ricketts exceeded her previous best twice in the 400m clocking a 55.29 preliminary round before coming in slightly behind the time with 55.50 claiming seventh place.  Mason, who wouldn't score any individual points in the meet, showed future promise in the short sprints for Barton having finished 15th in the 100m in 12.13 before coming up short of the 200m finals finishing tenth in a personal best 24.50.

Along with Champagnie's eleven points in the field events of javelin and shot put, fellow freshman Michelle Tomlin grabbed the sixth spot in the hammer throw with a heave of 48.29m (158-05).

Complete NJCAA Division I Outdoor results