Sprint Medley Relay Disqualified After Impressive Effort

May 1, 2006

Philadelphia. Pa. (hurricanesports.com) – The University of Miami’s sprint medley relay of junior Roland DaSilva (Margate, Fla.), sophomore Khalil Jones (Miami Northwestern), sophomore Lance Leggett (Bartow, Fla.) and sophomore All-American Tim Harris (Miami Booker T. Washington) thought they had run the race of their lives.

The foursome had just posted an impressive time of 3:17.30 to finish second at the prestigious Penn Relays Carnival this past weekend, breaking the 11-year old school-record by more than a second.

The joy was short lived however as track officials disqualified the team for running on the line during the 200-meter portion of the race.

The disqualification does not detract however from the Hurricanes’ inspired performance. Miami was in the seeded section of the sprint medley relay Championship of America race on Friday night.

The team of DaSilva (200m), Jones (200m), Leggett (400m), and Harris (800m) showed tremendous fortitude moving from seventh to first over the final two legs before finally placing second.

Leggett, the ACC Outdoor Champion in the 400-hurdles, received the baton in seventh place and ran a 46.80 split to move Miami into fifth place. Harris, the ACC indoor and outdoor champion at 800-meters, then took the baton and energized the crowd running a 1:46.40 split that nearly brought home the gold for the Hurricanes. Harris took the lead with 100 meters to go in the race, but was out kicked in the final 30 meters by Texas Tech’s Zach Glavash.

Harris’ 800 split was the fastest in the 800 on the day.

DaSilva, Jones and Leggett also ran in the 4×100-meter relay with sophomore Andrew Johnson (Pittsburgh, Pa.). The team finished second in its preliminary heat with a time of 41.87 seconds. The time was not enough to qualify them for finals.

The Hurricanes next compete at the Georgia Tech Invitational, May 12-13, in Atlanta, Ga.