NEW YORK – The University of Pennsylvania men's and women's track & field programs, while amidst quality competition, set two program records, won a pair of events and set, in total, five top-10 all-time marks and times on Friday and Saturday at the Dr. Sanders/Columbia Challenge, hosted by The Armory.
FULL RESULTS
The Quakers began the weekend on the track with tremendous performances in the short sprints. Freshman Grace O'Shea advanced to the final with a blistering time of 8.50 in the 60m hurdles, moving her into third in the event in program history. She held that position for just a few hours, though, as she ripped off a 8.40 in the final, finishing third and matching Breanne Bygrave's program record. Penn ran some terrific times top-to-bottom in the event, despite sending only O'Shea to the final. Bygrave ran an 8.55, missing out on the final by just one position; fellow freshman Lauryn Harris finished with an 8.68 and sophomore Skyla Wilson ran an 8.80.
Harris made waves elsewhere, crushing the program record in the long jump with a mark of 5.98m (19-7.50) to win the event. Elena Brown-Soler wasn't far behind with a leap of 5.93m (19-5.50), now the second-best mark behind only Harris.
In men's competition on Friday night, junior Marvin Morgan ran a 6.89 in the prelim to qualify for the final in the 60m dash before running the identical time to place eighth.
On Saturday, Colin Daly and Will Daly finished fourth and fifth in the 3,000m run, respectively, and Colin's time of 8:11.16 was an addition to the record book, moving into ninth all-time. Other top finishes for the men included perennial contender Sean Clarke, who finished second in the pole vault with a clearance of 5.25m (17-2.75).
The women's team was headlined on Saturday by the 4x400 quartet of Wilson, Cecil Ene, Brown-Soler and Uchechi Nwogwugwu, finishing third in a stacked field to just Ohio State and UCLA with the second-best time in program history, 3:40.60. Penn, who returned all four athletes from last year's relay group that earned honorable mention All-America status at the NCAA Finals, will be shooting for qualification at March's NCAA Indoor Championships.
Mayyi Mahama, just one week after setting a new PR and second-best mark in program history of 19.89m, won the weight throw on Saturday with another massive throw of 19.85m (65-1.50). The performances of Mahama and the 4x400m relay were two of four top-five results on the women's side on Saturday, as Nwogwugwu finished third in the 400m in 54.74. Only her and Ene have run a time better than that in program history.
In the 800m Invitational race that included 2019 NCAA Indoor champion Denae Rivers and a slew of professional racers, Nia Akins finished fifth, crossing the line in 2:04.31, almost a full second ahead of the Penn State runner. Before this weekend in women's indoor competition, no athlete recorded a time under 2:05.30.
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