by Benny Benton
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Zorayda Rodriguez blew away her indoor school record in the long jump Saturday at the UCS Invitational, one of four Barton College records to fall in the meet held at JDL Fast Track.
She was joined by sophomore Alexandria Robinson, who lowered the Barton indoor mark in the 400-meter run for the second week in a row. Both relay squads – the 4x400 and distance medley – also set new school records.
Besides those, an additional four personal bests were achieved by the Lady Bulldogs, two of those recorded during a solid day for freshman Alainah Taylor.
Rodriguez, a junior from Knightdale, N.C., leaped past her old record of 4.97 meters on Saturday with a mark of 5.34 meters. The effort was 10th overall in a field of 37 mainly NCAA Division I competitors, but second-best among all NCAA Division II participants in the event. Her mark of 5.34 was the third-best in Conference Carolinas this season.
Rodriguez also produced a season-best mark of 10.56 meters Saturday in the triple jump, an event in which she placed second to earn all-conference acclaim in last year's league indoor championship.
Robinson, who knocked a second off her previous school record in the 400-meter run at last week's Vince Brown Invitational down to 1:01.65, trimmed roughly another third of a second off that mark on Saturday to 1:01.27. The performance was the second-best in the league this year.
The Apex, N.C., resident was also part of the record-setting 4x400-meter relay team. She joined Cimone Barbour, Zoey Cook and Breyuana Kittrell in carving nearly a second off the previous mark, lowering the time to 4:09.69.
Barton's distance medley foursome of Angelica Del Real, Tikycia Young, Lauren Andreola and Andrea Roca also narrowly toppled the Bulldog record, surpassing the old mark by .63 seconds with their effort of 4:17.34.
Taylor, a freshman from Garysburg, N.C., sprinted to a time of 8.06 seconds in the 60-meter dash, just six one-hundredth of a second off the Barton school record, and the sixth-best time in the conference this season. She greatly improved upon her previous best of 8.24 seconds. She also set a new personal record in the 200-meter run with a time of 27.9 seconds, more than a half-second faster than her old best of 28.64. Her 200 time is the third-best on the squad this season.
Fellow freshman Devin Heath also set a personal record in the 200-meter run, improving upon her previous best of 29.92 with a time of 29.83. The final personal record was a benchmark recorded by Kittrell, who made her first career start in the indoor 400-meters, posting a time of 1:03.20, just under two seconds behind Robinson's school record.
A number of other team members turned in their best performances of the year, including Cook in the 60-meter hurdles, Tikycia Young in both the 200-meters and 400-meters, Stephanie Stewart in the 200-meters, and Barbour in the 800-meters. Barbour strengthened her hold on second place among the league's top performances with the run of 2:29.20.
The entire team will find out where it stands among the league's best when it finishes out the indoor season with the Conference Carolinas (Indoor) Championships, which will be held on Sunday, Feb. 23, at JDL Fast Track.
