It’s January. Time for track and field right? The Barton women’s team is.
The Cougars got their indoor season off to a good start this past weekend by qualifying nine for the NJCAA Championship in March. Barton travel to the University of Kansas and took part in the Bill Easton Classic in Anschutz Pavilion to open the 2016 campaign.
Headlining the day was sophomore standout Tasha Frazier. She placed second in both the 60m hurdles and the triple jump. Both earned her a spot in the NJCAA Championship after just one meet.
Five of Barton’s nine qualifying spots came from those two events.
Frazier ran an 8.72 for the runner up spot. Daria Cook of host Kansas won the event in 8.63. Joining Frazier in the finals for the Cougars were Ayesha Champagnie and Tamara Style. Champagnie finished fourth in 8.93 and Style fifth in 9.12. Both were under the 9.17 standard for the NJCAA Championships.
In the triple jump, Frazier hit 39-3.25 for her runner-up spot. Kirsten Burnett of Oral Roberts won with a leap of 39-11.25. Briana Payne finished ninth in the event but her leap of 34-7 was better than the 34-4.25 qualifying mark.
Barton had three more throwers earn qualifying marks as well as Asha Douglass on the track. Douglass finished second the 800 in 2:25.39 qualify.
Michelle Tomlin topped a qualifying mark in two throwing events. The freshman was second in the shot put at 47-4.25 and fifth in the weight throw at 48-11.
Champagnie earned the rare triple jump-shot put double qualifying with a heave of 40-7.5 in the shot. That was good for fourth place. The freshman from Jamaica also took fifth in the high jump. She cleared 5-3. That mark is just under the 5-3.25 need to qualify in that event.
Other notable finishes on the day included Style in the 200m, where she was fifth. Style ran 25.71, also just shy of the mark needed, 25.51. O’Neisha Glover took fourth in the 400m in 59.45, Rian Robinson ran 1:28.57 in the 600y for seventh and Kaitlyn Tuey 12:04.31 in the 3000m for eighth.
Barton will head to the Holiday Inn Invitational on the campus of the University of Nebraska this weekend in Lincoln.