ARKANSAS CITY — The Barton Community College women’s team took home the third-place trophy as the NJCAA Region VI Outdoor Track and Field Championships wrapped up Saturday.
After finishing 14th at last year’s meet, the young-and-upcoming Lady Cougars made their mark in climbing to third and also finishing second in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference West standings.
Barton started the three-day event with the two-day heptathlon as Modesty Lorick took third place with a total of 3,950 points.  
Fellow freshman Trenna Cox had a good event as well with multiple season-bests to finish just out of the points with a ninth-place finish at 3,336.
Freshman discus thrower Elizabeth Evans had a tremendous day in the cage, throwing personal bests in three of her six throws to finish in fourth place.  
Evans exceeded her best throw of the season, coming into the meet by nearly four meters by throwing a 45.15m to wrap up the event. She also competed in the shot put, finishing 10th with a 11.64m throw.
The distance duo of Lydia Mato and Agnes Abu continued their assault on the region.
Mato, who captured every event and honor she could get in the indoor season, scored the most points in the meet, winning two events and finishing second to Abu in two other events.  
Abu captured the Athlete of the Meet for her two individual championships, a second-place finish and helped the 4x400 relay team to a fourth-place finish.
Abu picked up a second-place finish in the 400 dash, crossing the line at 56.94 while teammate Shay-Ann Holness grabbed two points coming in seventh at 59.30.  
Abu and Mato battled it out in the 800 run with Abu coming out on top, turning in a 2:15.13 while Mato took second in 2:18.10.  
The duo went at it again in the 1,500 run as Abu took first in 4:49.28 and Mato came in second at 4:55.01.
Mato captured her first championship on Friday evening in the last race of the day, blowing away the competition in the 10,000 by nearly two minutes in a casual 40:55.21.  
Mato also had another convincing win in the 5,000 run, winning by 20 seconds crossing the line in 20:39.73.
Barton got two hurdlers in the 100 hurdle finals with Kiana Winston placing fifth in a time of 14.81.  
Modesty Lorick, who ran 14.80 in the preliminary round did not compete in the finals.  
Holness led Barton in the 400 hurdles with a third-place finish at 1:05.21 while Winston took home eighth in a time of 1:06.58.
In the relays, the Lady Cougars scored two points with a seventh-place finish in the 4x100 as the team of Cox, Lahni Clifton, Lorick and Winston crossed in 51.96.  
Barton also grabbed five points for the fourth-place finish in the 4x400 as Abu, Clifton, Lorick and Winston clocked at 4:11.18.
Bethany Bowman jumped 1.56 in the high jump, earning the two-sport athlete a third-place finish and six points on the board.
N’Kia Jones made the long jump finals but fell just out of the points, finishing ninth at 5.28. Tahje Ochs just missed the finals with her 5.27 leap, finishing in 11th place.  
Jones improved in the long jump, earning three sixth-place points with a leap of 11.34 while Ochs finished in 13th at 10.45.
Barton will next head to Lincoln, Nebraska, for the Nebraska Invitational on May 10 before turning their sights to the NJCAA Division-I Outdoor Track and Field National Championships held May 14-17 in Mesa, Arizona.