MSU Track and Field Squads Travel To Philadelphia For 111th Penn Relays
Penn Relays Notes
MSU Athlete Bios
STARKVILLE, Miss. ?€“?€“ The Mississippi State University track and field squads travel to Philadelphia, Pa. Thursday through Saturday for the 111th running of the Penn Relay Carnival. The event is being held at Franklin Field on the University of Pennsylvania campus.
"We're going to try to win the Championship of America," said MSU head coach Al Schmidt. "We've won two in the last two years, so we hope to continue that success."
Collegiate individual events begin Thursday morning at 9 a.m. CT and go through Saturday at 5 p.m. CT.
At last year's Relays, Tiffany McWilliams won the Olympic Development Mile in a regional qualifying time of 4:31.31, the second fastest time ever run at the Penn Relays.
MSU won the 4x200-meter Championship of America relay with a 1:22.53 performance. The 4x400-meter relay team of Jamel Ashley, LaChristopher Lewis, Arthur Davis and Keston Nelson finished fifth in the race with a 3:05.36.
Travis McKay recorded time of 9:06.75 in the 3000-meter steeplechase championship race. In the hammer throw, Matt Holcomb took seventh with a distance of 184-6, while Matt Whalen finished 10th with a throw of 181-8. In the men's shot put, Whalen threw a 51-9 1/4 for ninth place, and J.D. Erickson took 12th with a distance of 50-11.
On the women's side, Kia James, Nicole Dunn, Zita Magloire and Jennifer McPherson took 10th in the sprint medley relay Championship of America race with a 3:58.58.
Nicola Wilson took seventh in the shot put with a throw of 45-10 3/4, while Crystal Averitt recorded a 146-1 in the discus throw and a 163-2 in the hammer.
The distance medley team of McPherson, Dunn, Magloire and McWilliams took seventh with a time of 11:17.46. Joy Griffith improved her time in the 5000-meter run by 19 seconds with her 17:26.10 performance.
According to the university, the annual Penn Relays has not only been America's largest track meet, but the world's first and most recognized relay meet. The presence and prestige of the Relays is extremely significant. Every April, the Penn Relays draw many of the nation's ?€” and the world's ?€” top track athletes to Franklin Field. Relays participants have won gold medals in every modern (summer) Olympic Games except the 1980 Moscow games, which the United States boycotted.