PHILADELPHIA - On a cloudy but comfortable day in the City of Brotherly Love, the University of Pennsylvania men's and women's track and field teams opened their outdoor seasons at historic Franklin Field, taking first place on both sides at the Penn Challenge. The women blasted the field, finishing with 277 points, ahead of Villanova's second-place 100, while the men edged out Army West Point with 162 points to the Black Knights' 134.

The men totaled 17 podium performances, with two top-10 school record marks, while the women notched 29 top-three finishes and continued to rewrite the record book with 11 performances on Penn's all-time list. 

Penn set the tone on the women's side with several dominating performances on both track and field events. Junior Taylor McCorkle finished first in both the 100 (11.72) and 200 (12.07), while Barbara Biney entered Penn record books in the 100 with a time of 12.07 seconds, good for second on the day. In the 200, the Quakers jammed the top spots, claiming the top six performances at the Penn Challenge. 

Rookie Mikayla Schneider finished first in the 400 with a time of 56.66 seconds, while senior Clarissa Whiting clocked a time of 4:27.76 in th 1,500, seventh-best in program history. Kylene Cochrane led a trio of Quakers in the 5K in the top-three, equal to Penn's impressive performance in the 2K Steeplechase led by Juliana Catania. Freshman Breanne Bygrave crossed the finish line in the 100-hurdles with the ninth-best time in Penn record books, at 14.26 seconds. The track portion of the day culminated with a school record time of 45.40 seconds in the 4x100 relay, as the foursome of Biney, McCorkle, Imani Solan and Elena Brown-Soler dashed to first place. The Quakers also took first in the 4x400 relay.

Anna Peyton Malizia jumped to a height of 1.73m in the high jump, third-best in school history, to win the event, ahead of Brown-Soler in third. Molly Minnig led a group of Quakers in the pole vault, finishing first, while Monica Benz eclipsed a height of 3.60m to enter Penn's all-time list. Devinne Miller took first in the triple jump for the Red and Blue, before freshman Maura Kimmel entered the scene for the Quaker, winning both the shot put and discus. Kimmel's shot put throw of 14.10m ranks third in school history, while her toss of 47.71m set a new program record in the discus. Fellow first year student-athlete Isis Trotman set a new Penn mark of her own, placing second in the hammer throw with a Penn-best mark of 55.46m. Rachel Lee Wilson and Bianca Donadio also entered Penn record books with their hammer throw performance. Lisa Sesink-Clee rounded out the day, placing first in the javelin with a toss of 42.94m. 

On the men's side, senior Chris Hatler picked up where he left off after an impressive indoor season, taking first in the 800 with a time of 1:51.08. Elias Graca finished close behind at 1:52.12 in third. Aaron Groff finished first in the 5K for the Quakers, while rookie Anthony Okolo claimed gold in the 400-hurdles with a mark of 52.82 seconds. Brothers William Daly and Colin Daly went two and three in the 2K Steeplechase, and the Red and Blue finished third in the 4x400 relay to round out the track events.

In field, jumps specialist Mike Monroe recorded a height of 2.08m in the high jump to win first, while freshman Sean Clarke tied for the 10th-best mark in Penn history on pole vault with a distance of 5.00m even to finish second. Kameron Hypolite won the long jump with a leap of 6.88m, before senior captain Noah Kennedy-White claimed the top spot in both the shot put and discus. Kennedy-White's mark of 16.57m in shot put was a personal-best, ranking 10th in Penn laurels. Tim Schanstra rounded out the day on the men's side with a No. 1 mark in javelin. 

Penn will split up the squad for three upcoming meets next week, as the Quaker will head all over the nation, with action about at the Florida Relays, the Stanford Invitational and the Danny Curran Invitational, all beginning on Friday, March 31st.