Friday at the Penn Relays

6:10 p.m.: The Quakers finished second after a good comeback in the men’s Heptagonal 4x400m relay. In second to last place after the first two legs, Ben McKean and Sam Shepherd worked to close the gap and Penn finished in 3:16.14. Cornell, who won the race in 3:14.65, was out of reach after opening up a decent lead.

5:30 p.m.: In the college men’s Championship of America DMR, Villanova’s Matthew Gibney provided an exciting finish. On the last leg of the 1600m, he reeled in Arkansas, which led for most of the race, to give the Wildcats the win in 9:30.81.

It was the first Villanova victory in the event since 2001. Texas had won the previous three years. Jake Morse of the favored Longhorns made a move to close in on Villanova and Arkansas with just over 400 m to go, but couldn’t maintain the pace, giving the Longhorns a third place finish.

Running in the final heat of the DMR, Penn’s men clocked a 10:09.38, good for a 17^th place finish overall.

I also just heard that the Tennessee women’s 4x1500 time of 17:08.34 is a new world record.

Some afternoon highlights:

The Penn women took a respectable 5^th in the 4x 1500m relay and set a new school record at 18:11.87. The Sarah Bowman-anchored Tennessee team set a new college record in the 4 x 1500, finishing in 17:08.34.

For Penn, Anna Aagenes went out fast, running a 4:26.6 split to keep the Penn squad near the pack. The Villanova, Georgetown, Tennessee and Washington runners broke off during the second leg, leaving Penn’s Kinjal Parikh and Wake Forest’s Merry Placer to duke out the fifth and sixth positions. Penn’s Leah Brogan open up a lead on Wake Forest and freshman Laura Steel ran the last leg without any threats of being overtaken.

In the men’s 4x200m, the Penn squad of Alan-Michael Hill, Julian Domanico, Willie Harris and Sam Shepard finished second in their heat and 31^st overall. Penn’s women’s 4x200 squad finished 32^nd with a time of 1:39.42.

Vere Tech of Jamaica won the 4x100 Girl’s Championship of American, after seeing close competition from the girls of Eleanor Roosevelt (Md). This was the15th time Vere Tech has won this event.

Good Morning (or almost afternoon) from Franklin Field, the site of the 115th Penn Relays. I'll be here throughout most of the day, periodically posting updates. Please feel free to add your own comments or let me know if there is an event you'd particularly like to hear about.

Right now there's about another half hour of high school boys 4 x 100 meters heats. Later today, though, I'm looking forward to the college women's 4x1500 Championship (Tennessee looks to add on to its DMR championship yesterday; Penn is competing as well), the shuttle hurdles (a sort-of unique event, as the runners run at each other and each leg is the opposite direction from the one before it), as well as the college men's DMR.