CORAL GABLES, Fla.—Freshman high jumper Sanaä Barnes (Keller, Texas) opened her outdoor season with a third place finish at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational on Friday afternoon.  Barnes cleared the bar at a height of 1.76 meters and tallied a third place finish in the competition.  The majority of the events in the two-day meet at Cobb Stadium will be contested on Saturday afternoon. 
 
Barnes entered Friday's competition with the high jump bar at 1.71 meters and made it over on her second attempt at that height.  She was one of five athletes who continued on when the bar was raised at 1.76 meters, and Barnes was successful on her third and final try to make it into the top three.  She missed on three attempts when the bar was raised to 1.79 meters.
 
During the indoor track & field season earlier this year, Barnes twice broke the school record in the high jump and became Villanova's first women's All-American in a jumping event.  She came in fourth at the NCAA Championships to earn first team All-America recognition, and it was at the national meet that she established the Wildcats current school record of 1.84 meters. 
 
The first event for the Wildcats on Saturday afternoon is the long jump at 3 p.m.