WEEK of: APRIL 28-MAY 4, 2008
New Jersey City University
junior All-American sprinter
EBONY BARNES (Elizabeth, NJ/Elizabeth) is the NJCU Women's Athlete of the Week for the second time this year and eighth time in her career and was also named the
New Jersey Athletic Conference Women’s Outdoor Track Athlete of the Week for the fourth time in seven weeks this season and the sixth time in her career. The honor comes after she was named the NJAC Outstanding Female Track Athlete of the Year for her performance at the NJAC Championship in Pomona, NJ on May 3, leading the Gothic Knights to a fourth place finish at the league meet.
In the NJAC meet, Barnes, who won her second NJAC title in the 100-meter dash in three years, crushed the conference record in the event while automatically qualifying for the NCAA Championship and easily won the league title in the 200-meters.
After placing first in the 100-meter preliminaries in 12.15 seconds—37/100th of a second faster than the field, Barnes turned on the jets for a historic finish in the finals, timing 11.84 seconds, to win the NJAC Championship by 39/100th of a second while obliterating the previous conference outdoor record of 12.10 seconds, achieved by former NJCU star and five-time national champion Diana Lawson in 2002.
Barnes, whose previous career best was 12.15 seconds on several occasions, became only the second NJCU athlete to ever break 12 seconds in the 100-meters and equaled the third fastest time in the event in school history. Lawson ran 11.75 and 11.82 seconds in May 2005 en route to a national championship and also ran 11.84 seconds in the 2002 national finals.
Barnes, who was an astounding 16/100th of a second faster than the NCAA automatic time of 12.00 seconds, posted the second fastest time in Division III this year, only behind City College of New York’s Jodyann Raymond, who clocked 11.78.
Barnes was equally as dominant in the 200-meter dash, clocking 25.12 seconds, to win the NJAC championship by 72/100th of a second over the 21-woman field. She still owns the 15th fastest time in the nation this year in the 200 (25.04, April 5, Osprey Open).
Barnes capped her NJAC championship performance by running the third leg of NJCU’s second place 4x400-meter relay team which timed 4:05.01.
