Barrios Wins Women’s Javelin National Title

EUGENE, Ore. – University of Missouri track and field’s Valentina Barrios won the women’s javelin national championship with a personal-best throw of 62.00m (203-5) at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Thursday at Hayward Field. 

Heading into her final throw, Barrios stood in the fifth before posting the fifth-best throw in women’s collegiate history to claim first place. The Barranquilla, Colombia, native earned the fourth women’s outdoor national championship in Missouri history, joining Sabrina Dornhoefer (1985) and Karissa Schweizer (2017, 2018), who both claimed titles in the 5,000m.

“It takes a team effort around the program to allow any of our athletes the opportunity to achieve at the highest level, and Valentina is a product of that,” head coach Brett Halter said. “She deserves all the credit in the world. She believed in the plan, stuck to it, and trusted the work she had put into her craft over the last couple of years. I’m incredibly proud of her.”

With the result, Barrios broke her program record of 58.20 (190-11), which she set at the Southeastern Conference Championships, where she also won the title. Her result is the eighth outdoor national championship Mizzou has earned in a field event – men’s or women’s – and the first since Nat Page did so in the high jump in 1979. In addition, it marks the first time that a Mizzou man and woman have claimed national titles in the same year as Jonathan Seremes won the indoor triple jump crown in March.

Barrios earned a spot as a first-team All-American with the result in her first appearance in the NCAA Championship Finals. Alicia Burnett also capped off her season as an All-American, earning a spot on the second team after finishing 11th in the women’s 100m semifinals in 11.11. 

Following Barrios and Burnett’s results, the Mizzou women’s team stands tied for fifth with 10 points.