Two Flames Track & Field members prepare for NCAA Championships

Liberty University will send two track & field student-athletes, Warren Barrett (men’s shot put) and Kennedy Sauder (men’s high jump), to the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships this weekend at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, N.M.

The men’s high jump will begin at 3 p.m. EST on Saturday, with the men’s shot put to follow at 9 p.m. EST. The meet will be televised live on ESPN+.

Sauder is back at the NCAA national meet after becoming the nation’s only freshman men’s high jumper to earn All-America honors both indoors (T-13^th place, 2^nd team All-American) and outdoors (T-15^th place, 2^nd team All-American) in 2022. He qualified on the basis of his aforementioned 7-3.25 effort at the Feb. 10 Don Kirby Elite Invitational in Albuquerque. That is tied with Wichita State’s Brady Palen for No. 7 on the NCAA list this season.

The sophomore has finished first in four of his five high jump competitions this season. Most recently, he successfully defended his ASUN Conference title with a 7-2.5 clearance on Feb. 25.

Barrett has enjoyed a breakthrough season after entering the year with a top shot put mark of 60-6.5 during his first two years as a Flame. He broke the program record with a mark of 63-3.5 at the Liberty Kickoff on Dec. 2 before improving it to 64-1.25 at the Brant Tolsma Invitational.

The 64-1.25 mark has Barrett seeded No. 15 among the event’s 16 national qualifiers.

Barrett has won three of his four shot put competitions this season. The lone exception came in his most recent meet, the Bob Pollock Invitational on Jan. 28. That day, Barrett finished second to Cincinnati’s Fred Moudani, another of the individuals who will be throwing the shot put Saturday in Albuquerque.

Barrett has not competed in six weeks due to injury but is slated to return to action on Saturday. He will be the Flames’ first men’s shot putter to compete at this meet since his former coach Clendon Henderson placed 14^th in 2008. Barrett is the first ASUN Conference men’s shot putter ever to qualify for the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships.

>> Read the complete report and follow the Liberty Track & Field team on LibertyFlames.com.