The Barton Community College men's track and field team had a successful opening weekend to its outdoor season this weekend competing at the Masked Rider Open hosted by Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

Two impacts on the program all-time list highlighted the ten national qualifying performances, two personal bests, and ten top ten placings.

Christopher Young garnered three bids to the national championships. After qualifying with a 48.49m throw in placing 9th in Friday's discus throw, Young began Saturday's action with a program 4th best javelin mark of 66.51m (218-2) in winning the event by over six feet. The freshman capped his weekend in the hammer throw with an 8th place in exceeding national qualifying standards with a 49.29 mark.

On the track, Barton had a pair of 3rd placers reaching national qualifying standards, Aaron Charles' 21.00 in the 200m with Elijah Mosley clocking a program 5th best time in the 400m at 45.61 seconds. Fabian Campbell also punched his national ticket in the 800m, placing 6th out of 37 entrants with a time of 1:53.31.

In addition to Young's three qualifying performances, fellow throwers Brandon Lloyd and Christopher Crawford each chalked up a pair of national tickets. Lloyd earned both of his on Friday, placing second in each of the discus and shot put competitions with 56.14m and 16.59m marks respectively before completing his weekend with a new personal best in the hammer throw at 43.87m. Crawford placed 7th in the discus at 52.84m as the Cougars went 2-7-9 in the event, following with a 5th place in the shot put at 15.84m.

The Cougars head back south for their next meet beginning Thursday in the three-day Texas Relays in Austin hosted by the University of Texas.