Temple University track and field traveled to Staten Island, New York to compete at the Villanova Invitational on Saturday in its fifth meet of the indoor season.
Coach Elvis Forde said the coaching staff decided to not bring the entire team in order to give the starters “a weekend off.”
“We had a reasonably good day, there’s still some kinks that need to be worked out, but we some seasonal bests for people today,” Forde said. “[Freshman] Chelby [Elam] had her best performance in the 60-meters since we returned to school and [junior] Sydney [Williams] ran her best 60-meters in a very, very, very long time. [Junior] Candus [Burks] didn’t have a big in the mark in the long jump, but she’s been very consistent in the technical aspect and that’ll really help her moving forward.”
Burks finished in third place in the long jump finals with a distance of 5.33 meters.
Williams and Elam each competed in the 60-meter dash finals, finishing in fourth and sixth place respectively. Williams ran a time of 7.94 seconds while Elam ran a time of 7.96 seconds.
Sophomore sprinter Marissa White, junior sprinter Mallorie Smith, junior jumper Aisha Brown and redshirt-senior distance runner Alanna Lally finished fourth in the 4×400-meter relay.
“All the major players that we’re counting on are in good shape and that’s gonna be critical as we [get] further and deeper into the season over the next month,” Forde said. “We’re pretty much in the heart of the indoor season and we’ve got two really important meets coming up. Staying healthy and competing well is all we can hope for in the next few weeks.”
The Owls’ “B” squad of Williams, freshman sprinter/hurdler Sophia Gulotti, junior distance runner Mikaela Vlasic and freshman hurdler Deyona Banks finished in eighth place in the 4×400.
The Owls will be back in action in two weeks when they travel to Boston for the Valentine Invitational on Feb. 14.
“We just have to keep our fingers crossed we stay healthy, and if we do, we have a very good opportunity to do extremely well in the next few weeks,” Forde said. “At the end of the month is the conference championships and we just have to stay confident in ourselves and stay prepared over the next couple of weeks.”
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