Track & Field Picks Up 10 Personal Records at Colonial Relays

Friday, April 1

Williamsburg, Va.

All Day

Temple University

Colonial Relays

Photo by: Ben Solomon/American Athletic Conference

Track & Field Picks Up 10 Personal Records at Colonial Relays

4.2.16 | Women's Track and Field

WILLIAMSBURG, VA. – Following a two-day competition at the College of William & Mary, Temple women's track and field placed 21st out of 43 teams with 15 total points. Collectively, the Owls will return to Philadelphia with 10 new personal-records.

"There was some improvement and the effort was there but I always say the bar needs to continue to be raised," said head coach Elvis Forde. "We need to compete and keep working hard at practice. This is a short season but long in terms of the hours we need to put in at practice. I want the team to look forward to coming to practice every day so we can end the season with some big efforts."

Freshman Crystal Jones earned the highest individual placement with a seventh place spot in the 400-meter hurdles. Jones ran a personal-best time of 1:02.94 in the event. Senior Imani Shell also set a new personal record in the event with a time of 1:07.38 that placed 47th overall.

In the 100-meter hurdles, Sylvia Wilson ran a time of 14.13 in the preliminary round to place 3rd overall and qualify for the finals in the event. Wilson also ran the 100-meter dash where she posted a time of 12.34 seconds that placed 23rd out of a field of 91 total runners.

Junior Jimmia McCluskey added another personal record and top-20 finish in the 200-meter run with a time of 24.83 seconds that ranked 16th overall.

The distance events wrapped up the first day of competition for the Owls with freshmen Ashton Dunkley and Katie Leisher both posting personal-bests within the top 20. Leisher grabbed the 18th spot with a time of 4:50.02 and Dunkley was one spot behind with a time of 4:50.11.

Sophomore Katie Pinson continued her success, closing out day one in the 5000-meter race with a time of 17.47.66 that ranked 30th overall.

To open up day two, sophomore Megan Schneider posted a new personal-best time in the 5000-meter unseeded race with an 18:25.53.

The triple jump was the only other non-relay event on Saturday. Juniors Sydnee Jacques and Chapman participated in the event, posting jumps of 11.15 meters and 11.06 meters, respectively.

The Owls' distance medley relay earned the highest placement among the relay events. Leisher, Jones, Maya Halprin-Adams, and Maddie Bixler posted a time of 12:32.12 in the event which ranked 13th overall.

Another top-20 finish for the Owls came in the 1600-meter sprint relay. Cacie Rosario, Simone Brownlee, Shell, and Groomes ran the relay in a time of 4:13.56 to finish in the 16th spot.

"Our focus right now is to get everyone healthy and rested and head into the back-end of this season strong," said coach Forde. "If we stay positively focused on what we're doing we can definitely make some headway."

The Owls will have an off weekend before taking the short trip to New Jersey for the Princeton Quad on April 16.