by Benny Benton
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Two Barton College throwers set school records with strong performances, and a freshman made an impressive debut during the women's indoor track season opener Sunday at JDL Fast Track.
Kelsey Poole started the day by breaking the indoor school record in the shot put, and Janae Cunningham closed out the meet by improving her own school record in the weight throw. In-between, newcomer Jasmine Watson blazed to a runner-up finish in the 60-meter hurdles.
Poole, a sophomore from Oakboro, N.C., recorded a mark of 11.60 meters in the shot put to surpass the previous BC standard of 11.53 meters set last season by Desiree Whitley in the Buccaneer Invitational. Poole claimed sixth place out of 30 in the meet, with four of those ahead of her representing NCAA Division I programs.
Cunningham, a sophomore from Hubert, N.C., claimed fourth place out of 19 participants in the weight throw with a toss of 13.40 meters that topped her own BC record of 13.34 meters set last year.
Watson, the freshman from Suffolk, Va., won her heat on the way to a second-place finish out of 20 runners in the 60-meter hurdles. She posted a mark of 9.04 seconds, just over a tenth of a second off the school record.
Barton also received a third-place finish among 19 racers from senior Sharon Kiptoo, who completed the mile in a time of 5:20.06, roughly 2.5 seconds off her own BC record.
Junior Courtney Ricks added a personal record time in the 60-meter hurdles (9.26 seconds), and sophomore Meghan Araldi made her indoor debut in the 3,000-meter run (11:41.77).
Barton is slated to return to action in early January.
