With the Penn Relays and the Heptagonal Championships looming, some Penn track athletes proved they are ready to go by posting some solid performances.
Since the upcoming meets are the most important of the season, there is no question where the focus of Penn's athletes and coaches lie.
Even though the athletes had a strategy to taper in order to reach their top performances in the next few weeks, the Quakers continued to compete at a high level.
The men's team traveled to Princeton last weekend and recorded six victories at the Larry Ellis Invitational. Freshman David Whitehurst won the 110-meter hurdles in a time of 14.29 seconds. The mark also qualified him for NCAA East Regional Championships. Sophomore Grafton Ifill took top honors in the 200m in a time of 21.20, but failed to qualify for NCAA Regionals by one one-hundredth of a second. Although the time is the seventh-best in Penn history, Ifill may have eased off slightly at the finish in order to preserve himself for the upcoming important meets.
Big things are expected of Ifill at the Penn Relays as well as at Heps in two weeks.
Freshman Tim Kaijala won the 800m run Elite in a time of 1:52.28, while classmate Kyle Calvo won the long jump with a leap of 23 feet, 7.5 inches. The 4x400m relay team of Peter Cochran, Eric Ljungquist, Courtney Jaworski and Cody Schovitz took the blue ribbon with a time of 3:16.54. Senior Neal Wodjowski also qualified for NCAA regionals in the pole vault.
The women traveled to nearby Widener University to compete in the Widener Invitational. Coach Gwen Harris gave her top runners the weekend off to help prepare them for the Penn Relays. Penn's standout runners including Izu Emeagwali, Jesse Carlin, Dana McCurdy and Shaunee Morgan did not attend, however Penn's top field athletes took center stage.
Indoor Heptagonal shot put champion Charity Payne made a nice transition to the discus. With a mark of 139 feet, 10 inches, she won the event and also qualified for the ECAC Championships. The throw was the fifth-best in program history. Sophomore hammer thrower Catrina Chisholm also won her event with a throw of 169-7, which out-distanced the closest competitor by over 22 feet.
On the track, freshman Hayley Cusack finished ninth in the 400m with a time of 59.61, while sophomore Leslie Wilson claimed the ninth spot in the 100m hurdles with a time of 16.72.
Harris remained optimistic about the performances.
"Most of these guys are coming around, which is nice," she said. "Everybody ran faster than they were supposed to, which is great for the team."
