Temple University women’s track and field finished its regular season at the University of Pennsylvania in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Collegiate Invitational on April 24.
Temple decided to rest most of their upperclassmen so they could give freshmen and sophomores a chance to compete.
“We pretty much brought the whole group over and it was a good day,” said head women’s coach Elvis Forde. “We had some good performances all across the board, including some of the youngsters.”
Sophomore Chelby Elam, graduate student Alanna Lally, freshman Chidumga Nkulume and senior Mallorie Smith broke a school record by two seconds in the sprint medley relay event, recording a time of 3:52.79.
The Owls finished first in the distance medley relay, with a team of seniors Helene Gottlieb, Mary Olayinka Ilelaboye, Grace Moore and freshman Lea Keribiriou, clocking in a time of 11:57.95.
The Owls finished second place in the 4×100 meters with Elam, Nkulume, freshman Jewel Ofotan and Smith.
Redshirt-senior Grace Moore came in first place in the 1,500-meter sprint and first place in the heat by heat competition. Senior Aisha Brown finished third in the high jump competition. Senior Emma Gee earned second place in the 3000-meter sprint, and senior Michelle Joyce finished with a personal best time of 16:31.61. in the 5000-meter.
The Owls suffered several injuries to some of their best runners, Forde said.
“We can’t be at our best with injuries to runners like Marissa White, who has been dealing with nagging injuries, so we decided to give her a rest,” Forde added. “[Gee] was disappointed to get hurt after she fell in her race as well. We don’t know yet if she’s hurt severely or if it’s just some bumps and bruises. [Sophomore Ragan-Lei Phillips] still has some issues with past hamstring injuries. As long as everyone can try and at least get back up to 90% we’ll be happy about that.”
Temple’s next event is the Princeton Invite tournament on April 25 in Princeton, New Jersey.
Be the first to comment