The Penn men's and women's track teams are again rewriting the school's record books.
Sophomore sprinter Grafton Ifill recorded the fastest 100-meter time at Penn since 1984, and the women's 4x100-meter relay team broke its own record -- again.
Ifill won the 100m with a time of 10.42 seconds, the fourth fastest time in school history. The Clemson transfer posted a time only a hair behind his personal best of 10.39 seconds, and in the process, qualified for the NCAA Regionals. Ifill won the 200m as well with a time of 21.31 seconds, and ran a leg of the 4x100m team which placed second.
"I'm really happy about it," Ifill said. "I got the Regional qualifier early in the season, so I'm feeling really good about it. The 100m time was pretty good, and I'm continuing to drop my times ... I think as I run more meets, my times should continue to improve."
Men's coach Charlie Powell was happy to see Ifill run well and qualify for the Regionals.
"I was glad to see Grafton get that 100m one out of the way. That one is sometimes hard in the spring," Powell said.
For the women, the 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams continued to impress this weekend. The 4x100m team of Jesse Carlin, Shaunee Morgan, Krysta Copeland and Izu Emeagwali broke its own record which it had set just last weekend. Both the 4x100m and 4x400m teams won the races fairly easily, as the 400m relay team finished with a time of 3:46.22.
"We broke our own record by [a tenth] of a second, so that's really good because we keep inching forward and getting better," Morgan said of the 4x100m run.
The relay teams are some of the best Penn has seen, and their times just keep getting faster.
"It's really exciting," said Carlin, who runs the 4x400m as well as the 4x100m, and won the 400m dash on Saturday. "Each year before, the team had one good person, but here the four of us are able to get together. It wasn't our best running, but we were laid back, and even our laid-back is pretty good."
Against Princeton and Yale, the Penn women won the team-scored tri-meet comfortably, winning eight events and accumulating 84 points compared to the Elis' 72 points and Princeton's 47.
The meet was nice to win, but it was not as competitive as other ones along the way.
"It's Princeton and Yale," women's coach Gwen Harris said. "It's one of the meets that we want to do well in, but I'm not going to beat them up over it."
Claire Duncan shattered her personal best time -- which also was Penn's record -- on her way to qualifying for the NCAA Regionals in the 3,000m steeplechase. Senior Samantha Crook also qualified for Regionals after getting second in the pole vault with 12 feet 5.5 inches.
In the meet against Princeton, Villanova and Rutgers this weekend, the men also fared well as a team. They won six events, and qualified three athletes to the regionals. Along with Ifill, Courtney Jaworski qualified in the 800m with his winning time of 1:49.42, and javelin thrower Jim Malizia qualified with his winning throw of 203 feet 10 inches.
Powell was impressed with freshman Alejandro Shepard, who got second in the 3,000m steeplechase, but was happiest with Malizia.
"I was really impressed with Jim Malizia," Powell said. "Not only did he get his qualifier but every time [another thrower] would throw a little father, he answered, and finally he won it, and that was great to see."
