Hurricanes Head North To Historic Penn Relays
April 22, 2009
CORAL GABLES – A total of 15 student-athletes will represent the University of Miami men’s and women’s track teams at the historic Penn Relays. The event held at Franklin Field is on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and will take place Thursday-Saturday, April 23-25.
The Penn Relays is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious track and field relay event. Beginning in 1922 with the renovation of Franklin Field, the Penn Relays has hosted high schools and college track and field programs as well as amateur and professional athletes. This year there are over 1,200 schools that will be attending in front of a three-day audience that is expected to be over 100,000 strong.
The 15th-ranked women will open the meet Thursday at 10 a.m. as sophomore Meghan Novinger competes in the high jump and the duo of Tameka and Takecia Jameson race in the 400-meter hurdles.
Novinger heads to Philadelphia with a career-best mark of 1.70m (5-07.00), a height she has reached on two occasions this season, with the last coming at the Miami Elite on April 11.
The Jameson twins both have reached regional qualifying times in the 400-meter hurdle event this season, with Tameka Jameson registering a season-best time for the two at 57.07. Tameka Jameson finished fourth at the ACC Championships this past weekend in the event.
The 4×100 relay will begin at 1 p.m. on Thursday as Murielle Ahoure, Tara Thomas, Nene Kamate and Kristy Whyte race for a title. So far this season, the relay team has top time of 44.39 seconds, which qualifies for regional competition.
In the 4×200 relay, an event that is exclusively run at relay meets, Tameka and Takecia Jameson, will be joined by Kamate and Thomas on Friday at 2:10 p.m.
The traditional 4×400 relay will be the last event run by the Hurricanes on Thursday, at 5:50 p.m. and will feature Kamate, Tameka Jameson, Ahoure and Whyte. Miami has raced to three regional qualifying times this season in the event, with its best effort of 3:36.67 at the Florida Relays.
Ahoure, who won both the 100 and 200-meter ACC titles and ranks No. 13 and No. 3 in each event, respectively and will take part in the 100-meter dash Friday at 3:35 p.m.
Junior Deandra Doyley placed second and fourth in the long and triple jumps, respectively at the ACC Championships and will compete in both events this week in Pennsylvania. The Lauderdale Lakes native’s mark of 6.35m (20-10.00) at the conference meet, set her new personal-best in the long jump. She will be joined by fellow all-ACC performer Brittni Finch in the long jump, Thursday at 4.pm. The triple jump is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Friday.
The men’s team will see their first action at 9 a.m. on Friday as Cory Nelms will compete in the 400-meter hurdles, an event where he placed second in the ACC Championships with a season-best and regional qualifying time of 51.96 seconds.
The 400-meter hurdles is only the first of four events that the busy junior will be a part of on Friday. Nelms is also scheduled for the 110-meter hurdles at 3:30 p.m., the 4×400 relay at 4:35p.m. and the sprint medley relay at 6:45 p.m.
Joining Nelms in the 4×400 relay will be Patrick Blackie, Brandon Harris, and Davon Hill. The men’s best effort in the event so far this season was at the conference championships, where they registered a sixth-place time of 3:12.13.
The sprint medley relay, a race consisting of four legs of 400m, 200m, 200m and 800m, will be run Friday at 6:45 p.m. Along with Nelms will again be Harris and Hill as well as Patrick O’Donnell who will be running the 800-meter leg.
Junior Mikese Morse, who currently holds the school indoor long jump record (7.90m, 25-11.00) and was a fourth place finisher at the ACC Championships will compete in the event Friday at 2 p.m.
In addition to all of the relays, the 110-meter hurdles and 100-meter dash will be run as preliminary heats with the top-performers moving on to the finals. Click here for live results and visit hurricanesports.com each day for updated information.
