By TODD MOORE
Barton Sports Info
The 5th ranked Barton Community College women's track and field team completed the weekend trip to Pittsburg with the program's 30th Region VI title Sunday afternoon at the Robert W. Plaster Center on the campus of Pittsburg State University.
Barton won seven events in the two day meet, accumulation 162 points to capture the meet by nine points ahead of Cloud County Community College's 153 and third place Fort Scott Community College's 111 points.
Named the Female Track Athlete of the Meet after scoring sixteen points in two events, Kelsie Murrell-Ross also left her name atop the meet and program record book on Sunday in resetting the best shot put mark. Winning the event on her first toss of the afternoon, the sophomore bettered that mark two more times but made the most of her last throw in uncorking a record 16.30m (53-05.75) to best Fiona Richards' 2020 program top mark (16.28m, 53-05.00) by less than an inch. Freshman Treneese Hamilton placed runner-up in also resetting her personal best, marking a 14.76m (48-05.00) on Sunday for the program's 8th best mark and moving up to the third slot on the current national rankings.
The Cougars began their title quest on Saturday in the multis as Barton put 19 early points on the board behind a trio of Pentathlon athletes. Freshman Ana Couto won two of the events on the way to a meet record 3748 points to rank 5th best in program history. Kayleigh Prentiss placed 3rd with 2988 points while Ahniesha Presulume took 7th in accumulating 2315 points.
On the track Naiya Morgan become a 2023 two-time indoor Region VI Champion, winning the 400m in 55.09 to post a new personal best then a short time later winning the 200m in 24.39 seconds.
Other Region VI Champions: Kay-Lagay Clarke in long jump (6.05m, 19-10.25), Jazmine Williamson in high jump (1.71m, 5-07.25), and Brittania Ingram in the triple jump (12.20m, 40-00.25).
With the team's success also came the Cougars' second individual award of the day as Emmanuel Dixon was named the KJCCC Women's Assistant Coach of the Year.
The Cougars conclude the indoor season in a couple of weeks competing at the 2023 NJCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships held March 3-4 at Washburn University's Athletic Facility in Topeka, Kansas.