by Benny Benton
WILMINGTON, N.C. – Heather Cuddington and Nicolette Brown broke school records and Alexandria Robinson raced to a second-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles against a mostly NCAA Division I field as the Barton College women's track and field team opened its outdoor season this weekend at the Seahawk Invitational, hosted by UNC Wilmington.
Cuddington, a hometown sophomore and Beddingfield High graduate, set the tone for the new season by establishing a new Barton standard in the team's very first event of the year on Friday. Her time of 19:24.25 trimmed roughly 50 seconds off the old school record of 20:15.06 set in 2014 by teammate Lauren Andreola.
Brown, a freshman from Virginia Beach, Va., followed suit on Saturday, breaking the BC record in the shot put with a toss of 9.65 meters. Her mark surpassed the 9.48 meters posted by Kia Funderburk at last year's conference championships.
Barton's 4x100-meter relay team nearly claimed a school record as well, as the foursome of Eva Amo-Mensah, Robinson, Zorayda Rodriguez and Breyuana Kittrell turned in a time of 49.74 seconds, just two one-hundredths of a second off the existing Barton standard.
Robinson also recorded the Lady Bulldogs' top finish of the meet with her runner-up performance of 1:05.52 in the 400 hurdles. The junior from Apex, N.C., was the only runner in the top 14 who was not representing an NCAA Division I program. She came in second behind Towson University's Emily Wegner, who posted a mark of 1:03.60.
Barton also received a sixth-place showing from Kittrell among 58 runners in the 200-meter dash (25.8 seconds), and a ninth-place finish from Rodriguez among 28 participants in the long jump (5.30 meters).
Two Lady Bulldogs broke their personal records in the meet. Andreola surpassed her previous best in the 5000-meters by roughly two seconds, posting a time of 2:13.52, and Amber Wilson improved her best effort in the shot put by just over a tenth of a meter to 6.90 meters.
In addition to her school record in the shot put, Brown established one of four other benchmark personal records by competing in the discus for the first time in her career. Fellow freshman Tameeka Williford made her outdoor debut in the 200-meter and 400-meter events, and junior Jamicia Jones ran in the 800-meter run for the first time in her career.
Barton returns to action on Friday and Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C., at a meet hosted by Wake Forest University.
