The women shone the brightest for Penn track and field on the first day of the Penn Relays.
The field events were the most successful for the Quakers on Friday, with several record-setting performances by throwers, who continued their stellar seasons.
Freshman Theresa Picciallo set a personal best by more than a foot in the shot put, which also surpassed the Penn school record. Picciallo finished fifth overall in the event.
Senior Morgan Wheeler moved up from third to second all-time at Penn in the javelin with a toss of 46.26 meters. That throw was good enough for Wheel to place fourth in the women’s javelin.
In front of a crowd of 23,310 – the tenth-biggest first day attendance in Penn Relays history – the women’s 4×100 relay was the first Red and Blue outing of the weekend on the track.
That relay team of freshman Rachel Hlatky, sophomore Heather Bong, junior Gabbi Piper and senior Nony Onyeador finished second in its heat, 26th overall. Their time was good enough to qualify for Friday’s ECAC final.
“That’s my favorite event, so I’m very excited,” Bong said.
In the distance portion of the night, senior Michael Kiley completed his final race at the Penn Relays wearing the red and blue uniform of the Quakers. Kiley ran the 3000m steeplechase in a time of 9:18.56, good enough for ninth place overall.
Kiley led the pack for much of the first half of the race, and held on for a solid time as the leaders pushed the pace.
Freshman Brendan Smith just barely missed out on a Penn top 10 all-time finish in the 5000m, placing sixth overall with a time of 14:26.55.
The young women’s team of freshman Taylor Hennig, Bong, Hlatky, and sophomore Shakele Seaton also put together a solid 4×400 relay against Ivy League competition in the Heptagonals heat.
“We’re still being really consistent with last week, but we’re still just trying to drop time,” Seaton said. “I think it was a good race, we all did what we could and we can only improve from here.”
The men will be featured more on Friday, as the Championship of America races begin to really get going.
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