By TODD MOORE
Barton Sports Info
The Barton Community College men's track and field team exceeded their No. 4 ranking in bringing home a 3rd place trophy Saturday at the 2023 NJCAA Division I Outdoor Championships in Hobbs, New Mexico.
Barton finished in the solid bronze position with 79.50 points, 20.5 points behind the shared title of host New Mexico Junior College and South Plains College while Iowa Western Community College was 24 points behind the Cougars in 4th place overall.
The Cougars had fifteen scoring performances in the three days of action while posting 15 personal and/or season bests, to go along with, five impacts on the storied Barton all-time top ten lists.
A trio of throwers compiled 57 of Barton's points, winning three of the four events including two coming from freshman Christopher Young on Saturday by winning the morning's javelin (63.96m, 209-10) before heading to the pit in capturing the shot put with a program 3rd best 18.63m, 61-01.50) dent in the ground.
Sophomore Brandon Lloyd was the big story in the first two days of competition, breaking the program, national meet, and NJCAA record in the discus with a 65.32 (214-04) distance. Lloyd marked five of his six discus throws over the 55m mark but his third toss shattered records in leading a 1-3-6 Barton finish in the event. (*bettered the Championship meet record set in 2021 by over seven feet and reset the 1995 national overall record by nearly four feet).
Lloyd's impact wasn't the only one felt in the discus on the program's all-time list as Lloyd replaced Christopher Crawford atop the chart while Young, who was second on the list, slid down to third despite a personal best 59.68m (195-10) in placing third on the national stage. Crawford, whose 59.93m throw at the Region VI Championships two weeks ago put him temporary at the top, placed 6th on Friday with a 58.31m (191-04) mark.
The Cougar men's first points came in Thursday's hammer throw with Young leading Barton's trio with a 3rd place 55.88m (183-04) throw. Lloyd added two points to Young's six by placing seventh overall at 50.40m (165-04) while Crawford came up seven inches shy of points with a 9th place finish at 50.07m (164-03).
Almond Small's six points led Barton's eleven points in the sprints. Placing 5th in the 200m in 20.70, Small bettered his program 5th best time in the in the prelims by clocking a 20.29. Already having the program's 11th fastest 100m time (10.10), Small clocked a 10.21 in the prelims before a 10.46 final time to place 7th overall.
Also in the record book with a program 5th best 400m time (45.61), Elijah Mosley earned Barton five points with a 4th placing in a slightly slower 45.68 clocking.
Mosley and Small helped led the relay teams to a pair of 4th place finishes in season best times. Joined by Aaron Charles and Jayden Singleton for the 4x100m in a 39.77 time, the duo were joined by Revon Williams and Fabian Campbell in clocking a 3:08.62 four trips around the oval time.
Jalen McGee tied a season best and just missed a pair of other bests in his three jumping events. Placing 10th in Thursday's long jump (7.32m, 24-00.25) to miss by a half inch, McGee tied his season best with a 2.02m (6-07.50) high jump to place 7th before coming up two inches shy of a triple jump best with a 9th placing and just 1.5 inches from earning points.