By BRANDON SMITH
Barton Sports Info
The Barton Community College swimming programs entered the holiday break behind their best performances of the season this past weekend at the Eagle Invitational, as the Cougars hit five season best times, 37 personal best marks with seven new program top-10 performances and one program record going down at the Mitch Park YMCA in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Competing as the lone NJCAA school over the three-day event, both Barton programs produced sixth place finishes with the Lady Cougars tallying 70 points over the 39-events while their counterparts the Barton men accumulated a 119 point total.
The Cougars will enjoy the extended holiday break before opening the second half of the season January 18th at Colorado State University Pueblo followed by hosting the Barton Invitational January 31 and February 1.
Men's Recap
Arnaldo Guimaraes highlighted the weekend taking down the program's top 200-yard breaststroke time shaving 12-seconds off his previous best stoppage to top the 24-partipant field in 2:01.20 and claim the Cougars lone individual crown over the three-day event.
The freshman continued his dominate season with two more program top 5 impacts, finishing fourth with the second quickest stoppage of 55.21 in the 100-yard breaststroke and ninth place result in the 200-yard IM in 1:52.04 for the program's fifth quickest time.
Also adding a pair of program top-10 times was Mateo Wallet collecting a 10th place finish in the 100-yard freestyle and 11th place result in the 200-yard freestyle. The freshman displayed the programs seventh fastest wall touch with a 46.88 in the 100-freestyle before clocking the fifth quickest 200-yard freestyle in 1:44.21.
As a squad, the Barton men pieced together 23 new personal best times.
Women's Recap
Despite not winning an event over the three-day course, the Lady Cougars netted 13 new personal best times with two new program top-10 impacts and four new season best performances.
Sophomore Aleksandra Cicha delivered the highest individual finish over the weekend with an 11th place finish in the 22-competitor 100-yard butterfly with the ninth quickest stoppage of 1:02.22.
Katy Alvarez mended two new personal best performances on the weekend while landing the other program top 10 time with a 20th result in the 100-yard breaststroke clocking the school's seventh quickest 1:15.91
Having the biggest improvement over the weekend was freshman Makayla Baxter, setting five new personal best times over her six events competed in.