GORHAM, Maine – After coming millimeters away from qualifying for nationals last spring, junior Zoe Barnes (New Gloucester, Maine/Gray-New Gloucester) will represent the University of Southern Maine Huskies' women's track & field team at the 2024 NCAA Women's Outdoor Track and Field National Championship in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The program leader in both the discus and the shot put, Barnes will compete in the discus on Thursday afternoon at 3:00 pm.
 
The top-22 performers in each event are selected to compete at the National Championships. Barnes' program the program discus record twice last season with her best throw of 43.99m coming at the State of Maine Pine Tree Classic and she continued to throw well over the final weeks of the season highlighted by a Little East Conference title in the event and a third-place finish at the DIII England Championships. However, despite a strong performance at the
MIT Final Qualifier, Barnes ended the season with the 23rd-best mark in the nation, just 0.05m behind the last qualifier.
 
Barnes has been in national championship qualifying contention throughout this outdoor season. She repeated as the LEC champion in the discus and the shot put and also won titles in both events at the Pine Tree State Classic and was named the Most Valuable Field Performer at the meet. Despite several impressive performances, Barnes entered the final week of the season outside of the top-22, but in range of qualifying if she could once again break her program record. She did exactly that with a throw of 45.46m at the Augustana College Midwest Final Qualifier, the same meet where a thrower from University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire set the mark that edged her out of the NCAA qualifying last season. She placed second in the event and ended the regular season with the 21st-best mark in the nation to earn her first trip to the National Championships.
 
The discus field features four returning All-Americans from last season's championship meet, including a pair of throwers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that took first and second at DIII New Englands. Barnes placed fourth at the New England Championships behind MIT's Alexis Boykin and Emily Ball and fellow national qualifier Emma Ramsing from Amherst College.
 
The discus competition will start on Thursday, May 23 at 3:00 pm.