The Penn men’s and women’s track and field squads both had dominant weekends during the Mountain Hawk Invite at Lehigh University.
On Saturday, the men’s team won the meet with a combined total of 181 team points. The Quakers placed highly in a handful of events, finishing 13 points ahead of second-place Monmouth, which scored 168 team points.
Freshman Thomas Pitt took two events on Saturday, capturing first place in both the high jump and long jump events. Pitt, who won the high jump by clearing 2.00 meters, also landed his best jump in the long jump event this season with a leap of 7.01 meters.
In addition to Pitt, the Quakers also received strong performances from another freshman, Clark Shurtleff. The rookie completed the mile run in 4:20.35, barely outpacing Monmouth’s Khari Bowen.
Senior Allante Keels completed the 400-meter dash in 50.45, achieving first place in the event. Two other Quakers, sophomore Tom Timmins and freshman Tim Hamlett, finished second and third, respectively. Keels, Timmins, Hamlett and sophomore James Killian then won the 4×400-meter relay in 3:20.68, the squad’s best mark this season.
On the women’s side, the Quakers finished second at Lehigh with a team score of 170 points, barely falling behind a Monmouth team that posted 175.5 points.
Senior Davielle Brown had a historic weekend for Penn, winning the indoor pole vault event by clearing the bar at 3.75 meters. The attempt was a career best for Brown, and is the second-best mark in the event in the history of Penn’s women’s track and field team, slightly below Sam Cook’s 3.81-meter mark set in 2005.
Senior Nony Onyeador, sophomore Jenny Thompson and junior Kersie Jhabvala also won events on Saturday. In a photo finish, Onyeador took the 60-meter dash in 7.77 seconds, just one-hundredth of a second in front of Monmouth’s Mariah Toussaint.
Thompson won the triple jump in dominating fashion; her jump of 10.96 meters defeated the nearest competitor by seven centimeters.
Jhabvala took the 3,000 meter race with a time of 10:25.53, the best time for any Quaker in the event this season. A fellow Quaker, freshman Nicole Ghazarian, finished second in the event in 10:30.80.
The performances of freshmen Elyssa Gensib and Shannon McCarthy, sophomore Annie Holland and senior Chelsea Delaney all combined to help secure the second-place finish for the Quakers.
Coming off this dominating performance at Lehigh, both the men’s and women’s teams will be back in action next weekend. The squads will travel to the Big Apple on Friday and will compete at New York Road Runner’s College Night at the Armory II.
SEE ALSO
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Penn track & field picks up the pace
Penn track & field looking to repeat Lehigh success in NYC
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