by Benny Benton
CONCORD, N.C. – Barton College senior Sharon Kiptoo recorded an all-conference performance at the Conference Carolinas Cross Country Championships for the third straight year on Friday, placing third in a field of 66 runners at Frank J. Liske Park.
Her 6K mark of 23:09.7 was nine seconds faster than her time last year, when she finished second. Both of those results earned First Team All-Conference recognition. Kiptoo was a Second Team honoree in 2015 after placing 10th.
Kiptoo, a resident of Eldoret, Kenya, is the first Barton women's cross country runner to earn First Team All-Conference honors in consecutive seasons since Ericka Skinner in 2010 and 2011, and she is the first ever in the NCAA era to gain all-conference status three straight years. Two other Barton runners, Skinner (2010, 2011, 2013) and Carin Burkett (2000, 2001, 2003), were three-time all-conference honorees, but neither did so consecutively.
As a team, the Lady Bulldogs came in eighth among the 10 programs with 177 points. Barton finished just three points behind seventh place Converse College.
Sophomore Meghan Araldi, competing in a 6K for the just the second time collegiately, trimmed more than two minutes off her first attempt at that distance with a mark of 25:21.2, which earned 19th place in the field.
Senior Judith Melly posted a time of 28:25.6 to place 44th. Sophomore Courtney Ricks, competing her first collegiate 6K event, recorded a mark of 31:49.8 to finish 59th, and freshman Brooke Lonergan, running in her second career 6K race, added a time of 32:33.1 to place 62nd.
Kiptoo was the only runner not representing nationally-ranked University of Mount Olive in the top six. The No. 21 Trojans took the other five spots to win the meet easily for the third straight season with just 18 points. Belmont Abbey College was a very distant second with 110 points, a single point better than third-place Southern Wesleyan University.
Leah Hanle of UMO was the top runner for the second year in a row, crossing the line in a time of 22:52.9.
Barton will return to action on Saturday, Nov. 4, when it competes in the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional at Wingate University in Wingate, N.C. Kiptoo finished 10th in a preview event on the same course last month, and will be attempting to qualify for nationals in the meet.
