PHILADELPHIA – "Just stay in the moment."
As Maddie Villalba clicked off the final four laps of the College Women's Championship of America Distance Medley Relay, Penn James P. Tuppeny/Betty J. Costanza Director of Track & Field Steve Dolan wanted to keep her grounded.
"Just stay in the moment," he would call out to her every time she passed him.
Villalba heeded his words, and in the process brought home a historic Penn Relays Championship of America crown on Thursday at Franklin Field.
A supremely talented quartet – Villalba; 2019 NCAA Indoor runner-up
Nia Akins; 400 program record holder
Uchechi Nwogwugwu; and
Melissa Tanaka, a top-10 performer in the indoor 800 and 1,000 – finished Thursday's race in 10:59.44, crushing the previous program record by more than nine seconds and setting a new Ivy League standard. Most impressively, they became the first Ivy League women's team to capture a Championship of America title at Penn Relays in this, the 125th running of the oldest and largest track & field competition in the United States.
Akins, who also holds the program records in both the 800 and 1,500, rocketed away from the pack on her third and final lap and finished with a 3:22.73 split in the opening leg, the 1,200. She handed the baton to Nwogwugwu, who promptly unleashed the fastest 400 in program history, taking just 52.22 to round the track and transfer the baton to Tanaka. Through the first portion of Tanaka's 800 leg the gap closed, but only because the rest of the field desperately needed to make up ground. As soon as the sophomore felt their breath on her back, however, she took off with plenty left in the tank for a final kick that once again blew open the gap. That left it to Villalba, who -- with Coach Dolan's constant coaxing -- clinched the championship with a 4:37.30 mile as Penn defeated second-place Notre Dame by more than three seconds.
The Quakers provided plenty of moments on Thursday as Camille Dickson won the long jump college section with a mark of 5.94m (19-6), the fourth-best in program history.
Two more relay groups took giant steps to contention in other Championship of America races on Thursday as both the 4x100m and 4x400m groups laid down top-nine teams to advance to the respective finals.
Early in the day, Imani Solan, Elena Brown-Soler, Mia Knight and Dickson, combined to run a 45.87 in the 4x100 to move into Friday's Championship of America race. Then, in the 4x400m, Skyla Wilson, Brown-Soler, Caroline O'Neil and Cecil Ene finished in 3:39.85, the fourth-best time of 60 entries and seventh-best in program history, to advance to Saturday's Championship of America final.
In the field events, Rachel Lee Wilson finished sixth in the championship section with a mark of 60.51m (198-6) and Maura Kimmel earned a ninth-place finish in the shot put championship with a throw of 15.41m (50-6.5).
Distance night concluded the opening day at Franklin Field. Olivia Ryan notched a top-10 result, finishing the 3K in 9:46.86 for eighth place.
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