UMass Lowell Athletics

Jacqui Barrett was a fierce competitor and a champion.  A thrower on the UMass Lowell Track and Field team from 2006 to 2010, Barrett was the 2010 NCAA National Champion in the shot put (outdoor) with a distance of 50' 8¼".  It was the finest throw of her life and came at the most important moment in her collegiate career.
 
Barrett was also a two-time All-American, a three-time All-New England performer and a four-time Northeast-10 Conference Champion.  
 
2010 was a special year for the Woburn, Massachusetts native who wrapped up the season with a National Championship.  Barrett was named NCAA East Region Indoor Field Athlete of the Year and was honored by UMass Lowell as the Cushing Award winner as the University’s top Female Athlete. When her collegiate career ended she held four Northeast-10 records in the shot put and had won more than thirty competitions.  The UMass Lowell track and field team won three indoor and two outdoor Conference championships during Barrett’s four years.
 
The NCAA Championship came in Barrett’s final performance in a UMass Lowell uniform.  The winning toss came on the second of her six throws.  The heave, 50' 8¼", was a school record.  And that record still stands. 
 
"When she threw 49-3 to open the series, she came out of the circle and you could see a little swagger. Almost as if she was saying, `I'm on today,’” according to UMass Lowell Track and Field Head Coach Gary Gardner speaking in 2010.  “I think her getting into and doing well in a lot of big meets in the spring made a huge difference for her this year.''
 
Barrett had won the Northeast-10 Conference Championship and the New England Championship earlier in the month and continued to roll right into the NCAA competition.
 
When Barrett, years earlier, showed up at UMass Lowell she had never thrown for more than 37-feet.  But that would change under the tutelage of Throws Coach Barbara Smith.
 
"She was very athletic and had a quick release and she just oozed with potential,'' according to Smith. "I knew with the technical work I could do with her and with her natural ability, she could do big things. She improved so much from year to year it was only a matter of time. Not only were her throws getting stronger, but so was her confidence level.''
 
Nearly a decade after her collegiate career ended Barrett and fellow Hall of Famer Heather Oldham combine to hold the top ten throws in the shot put both indoors and outdoors by a UMass Lowell athlete.
 
"When Heather Oldham graduated I was sure she would be the best shot putter the school would ever have," said Gardner.  "Then along came another Woburn High School product that grew every season until in her last meet senior year when she broke Heather's school record and won a national championship. Jacqui was an amazing athlete." 
 
Barrett was also inducted into the Northeast-10 Conference Hall of Fame in 2019.