Track and Field's Barrios Honored at WIN For Columbia Awards Ceremony
2/10/2026 12:30:00 PM | General
Five other Tigers honored as finalists for awards at annual event.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Track and Field national champion Valentina Barrios was named the Collegiate Sportswoman of the year by the Women's Intersport Network (WIN) for Columbia at the organization's 29th annual WIN Awards ceremony Tuesday in Columbia. Barrios, last year's NCAA champion in the javelin at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, was one of six representatives from Mizzou Athletics honored as finalists for a variety of awards at the Wyndham Executive Center.
Each year, WIN for Columbia awards female athletes, coaches and mentors who reside in or represent a Columbia-based team for their excellence in their respective sport and involvement within the community. The awards breakfast took place as part of the organization's National Girls & Women in Sports Day celebration.
Lynda Tealer, former deputy athletics director at the University of Florida and current NCAA Senior Vice President of Championships, served as the event's keynote speaker.
Barrios won Mizzou's first national championship in the javelin last spring with a personal-best and school-record throw of 203 feet, 5 inches at the NCAA Championships, good for the fifth-best javelin mark in women's collegiate history.
Mizzou's other finalists included the following:
- Collegiate Sportswoman of the Year: Gymnastics' Jocelyn Moore.
- Female Coach of the Year: Gymnastics Associate Head Coach Whitney Snowden
- Female Mentor of the Year: Associate Director of Academic Services Jessica Buser; Cross Country/Track and Field Assistant Coach Paige Duca
- Mrs. Ann Walton Kroenke Leadership Award: Deputy Athletics Director/Chief Operating Officer Marcy Girton
Former KOMU Sports Director and Mizzou play-by-play TV broadcaster Ben Arnet was posthumously honored with the Kent Heitholt Award, given annually to a local member of the community who's supportive of women's sports.
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