Penn and Villanova Puts Points on the Team Scoreboard
June 8, 2024 –
The NCAA Women’s Track and Field Championships concluded on Saturday. The University of Pennsylvania and Villanova had athletes compete in the finalround. Isabella Whittaker ran in the 400m final for the Red and Blue and placed fifth to score 4 points for the Quakers. In the jumps Roschell Clayton placed tied for fifth to put 3.5 points on the team scoreboard for the Wildcats.
The overall women’s championship went to Arkansas who overtook Florida for the trophy 63 – 59. The Razorbacks scored 29 of those points in the 400m run. On the men’s side Florida nosed out Auburn for the national championship 41 – 40.
The 400m race turned out to be an Arkansas super sweep taking the top four spots in the race. Whittaker running in lane 9 got off to a good start and was able to run with the Razorbacks quartet. However, they passed her running in a line. The question evolved into which Arkansas runner would win. It was Nickisha Pryce who ran a collegiate record time of 48.89. Kaylyn Brown was second with a time of 49.13, her personal best, and tied the previous collegiate record. Amber Anning was third (49.59) followed by Rosie Effiong (49.72 a personal best). Whittaker set her collegiate mark running a time of 50.17, over a half second better than the sixth place finisher. She would be the athlete who would score team points for the Red and Blue. Her sister Juliette Whittaker won the 800m title running for Stanford.
Clayton set a personal best in the high jump clearing the bar at 1.87m. She tied for fifth place with Jenna Rogers of Nebraska. Rose Yeboah (Illinois) and Elena Kulichenko (Georgia) won the event jumping a meet record 1.97m.
Lily Murphy was scheduled to run for Penn in the 5000m final, but did not start. She did not finish in the 10,000m run on Thursday.
Penn tied for 45th place while Villanova took 49th place.
Other Notables
Parker Valby of Florida broke her collegiate-record time in the 5000m crossing the finish line in 14:52.18. Valby won the 10,000m race on Thursday.
Doris Lemngole of Alabama set a collegiate record winning the 3000m Steeplechase in 9:15.24.
Arkansas is the 4 x 400 Relay champion in a record time of 3:17.96 to break their own record set in May by nearly 4 seconds.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
Be the first to comment