Sprinters Shine on Day 2 at Power 5 Invitational
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The University of Miami track and field program closed out competition at the Power 5 Invitational on Saturday.
The Hurricane sprinters led the way on Saturday at the University of Michigan Indoor Track, as Miami earned a victory and had five top-five finishers on the afternoon.
Alfreda Steele won section 6 of the women’s 200m and finished second overall with a personal-best time of 23.55 seconds. Symone Mason placed ninth overall in the same event with a time of 24.28 seconds. The duo also placed in the top 3 of the women’s 60m final, as Steele was second with a time of 7.43 seconds, while Mason finished third with a personal-best time of 7.46 seconds.
“Alfreda had a heck of a day,” Miami director of track and field/cross country Amy Deem said. “Her first indoor 200, to come out and run as aggressively as she did, I’m extremely pleased with both of her races. I think taking a step away from the 60 and focusing more on the 200 is actually going to help her in both events and it was great to see that.”
Tiara McMinn finished third in the women’s 60m hurdles final with a personal-best time of 8.30 seconds, while Stefani Kerrison finished seventh with a time of 8.66 seconds.
“I was happy with Tiara,” Deem said. She’s a freshman that has been getting better each week.”
Myles Valentine won the men’s 60m final with a time of 6.76 seconds. Brandon Taylor is fourth with a season-best time of 6.83 seconds.
“Myles won his race and I thought he set it up very well and was very competitive,” Deem said. “I saw a lot of very good things today. We’ve just got to continue to get better.”
Kayla Johnson ran a collegiate-best time of 2:12.08 in the women’s 800m, finishing fifth in Heat 4 and 12th overall.
The Canes closed out the action on the track with good performances in the 4x400m relays.
Miami’s women finished second in the 4x400m relay, as Anna Runia, Mason, Samantha Gonzalez and Johnson teamed up to run a season-best time of 3:38.53.
Henri Delauze, Myles Valentine, McKinly Brown and Jaalen Jones combined to finished second in section 2 and sixth overall in the men’s 4x400m with a season-best time of 3:13.07.
“We’ve still got work to do, clearly,” Deem said. “We are a young team and we don’t have a lot of experience indoors, but when you see improvement each week that’s something you can build on.”
The Hurricanes also had several student-athletes shine in the field events on Saturday, led by senior thrower Gian Piero Ragonesi’s third-place finish in the men’s shot put with a throw of 18.48m.
Ragonesi was not the only thrower to excel in the shot put, as Debbie Ajagbe was seventh in the women’s shot put with a season-best mark of 14.73m.
Erika Voyzey led a trio of Canes that finished in the top eight in the women’s high jump. The sophomore finished fourth with a season-best mark of 1.74m, while Celine Thompson placed sixth with a personal-best mark of 1.69m and Kyra Maryland finished eighth with a season-high mark of 1.64m.
Kerrison finished seventh in the women’s long jump with a mark of 5.69m, while Hasani Knight was eighth in the men’s long jump with a mark of 6.98m. Niara Hill was seventh in the women’s triple jump with a mark of 11.83m.
Click HERE for final results from the Power 5 Invitational.
Following this weekend’s action at Michigan, the Canes will head to Clemson for the Tiger Paw Invitational on Feb. 9-10.
For all the latest information on the Miami Hurricanes, follow the official Twitter feed, @MiamiHurricanes, or “Like Us” on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/MiamiHurricanes. Follow @CanesTrack on Twitter for specific news on UM track and field and cross country. The program is also on Instagram.
