Winter break may be over, but track season is heating up.
Penn track, distance, multi-event and field event squads took center stage at the Penn Select meet after a brief winter break.
Distance
Senior long-distance specialist and cross-country All-Ivy honoree Anna Weirich dominated the 3,000-meter race by over 7 seconds to finish with a new meet record of 9:42.62, beating the previous time by 24 seconds. Weirich’s pace set the tone for her distance teammates, including senior Kyra Compton, junior Sarah Fischer, and freshman Adele Martin, who finished second, third, and fourth, respectively.
Sophomore distance specialist L’Mio Edwards led the charge in the mile with a 4:51.89 finish, trailing teammate and defending indoor 800-meter national champion Nia Akins. Close behind, sophomore distance runner Quin Stovall finished runner-up among her collegiate competitors, setting a 20-second personal record to break five minutes for the first time. Although Akins cruised to a 4:43.32 finish to break the standing meet record in the mile, she scratched in her signature event, the 800 meters.
Freshman distance standout Joseph Socarras added to his stacked resume with a second-place finish in the mile. Socarras led the majority of the race to run under the previous meet record, but was out-touched at the line by Rider distance runner Tamrat Snyder by a tenth of a second. Socarras’ finish currently ranks 20th in the NCAA.
Senior distance runner Liam Going also ran below the previous mile record to earn the bronze. Distance runners junior Kofi Fordjour and freshman Vinay Raman followed close behind in personal bests to round out the top five, all finishing under 4:10.
Professional talent was on display in the men’s distance events as well. Former Texas A&M All-American Cooper Cawthra lowered the 3,000-meter facility record by one second in an all-professional heat before the collegiate competition.
Field and multi-event
Junior indoor pole vault program record holder Evangeline Thomson added to her undefeated season by tying her season-best performance from the Penn Opener at 3.92 meters. Thomson finished just outside scoring territory at last year’s Ivy League Heptagonal Championships, but her consistency shows promise.
Senior thrower Stella Inman improved her season-best mark by a meter-and-a-half to comfortably win the weight throw with a 18.70-meter toss. Inman finished sixth in the weight throw at last year’s Heps behind Princeton thrower Angela McAuslan-Kelly, who was the Penn Opener weight throw champion and Ott Center for Track and Field record holder.
All three Penn contenders in the women’s weight throw reached the finals, highlighting the squad’s strength on the national stage. Junior thrower Ella Neskora finished runner-up behind Inman with a season-best 17.73-meter throw, while junior thrower Alexa Dochat came in fifth with a 15.10-meter throw.
Defending Ivy League indoor shot put champion senior Angeludi Asaah finished third in the shot put to open her senior season, throwing over the previous meet record with a 14.85-meter lob. Villanova thrower Maria Deaviz ultimately came out on top, setting a meet record with 16.15 meters, good for 11th in the NCAA at the time of writing.
On the men’s side, the Penn throwing squad went 5-6 in the shot put finals. Junior thrower Zezo Beshir improved his season-best mark by almost a meter, whereas freshman thrower Colter Oldham finished two centimeters shy of his Penn Opener performance at 14.91 meters. Another meet record fell as Delaware State thrower Christopher Johnson threw 16.26 meters to best the prior mark.
Rutgers pole vaulter Kevin O’Sullivan ultimately pulled away with a personal-best vault at 5.55 meters, breaking the meet and facility records and ranking eighth in the NCAA at the time of writing. Penn track alumnus James Rhoads currently leads the NCAA in the pole vault with a 5.71-meter jump in his first collegiate meet after an unprecedented gap year.
Senior high jumper and three-time All-American Kampton Kam’s absence was felt on the field as Rutgers high jumper Malachi Yehudah broke the standing meet record with a 2.11-meter jump. Sophomore high jumper Oliver Hassard attempted to fill the gap but came up short with a sixth-place finish, tying his season-best performance with a 1.91-meter jump.
The meet closed with the Penn women’s distance squad in the 4x400 relay. Stovall ran an impressive 57-second third leg to propel the Quakers from fifth to third place before handing off to Edwards, who anchored Penn to the bronze.
Penn indoor track and field will return to the Ott Center for the Quaker Invitational on Jan. 17, facing competition from teams near and far.
