On To The Nationals For Penn and Villanova Track and Field Athletes

The NCAA Eastern Region Preliminaries in Jacksonville, Florida concluded. There will be six athletes competing in the national track championships, a relay team, and six competing on the field next week in Austin, Texas.

The University of Pennsylvania will have three individual runners and a relay team participating, while Villanova will have three runners headed by Caroline Alcorta who qualified in both the women’s 5000 and 10000 meter events.

Alcorta had the third best qualifying time in the 5000 meter event running the distance in 16:05.78. The senior distance runner followed that with a time of 33:31.75 in the 10000 meters, seventh best qualifying time.

Joining Alcorta will be Casey Comber and Logan Wetzel both of whom will run in the 1500 meters. Comber ran the second best time in the 1500 at 3:43.20 while Wetzel grabbed the final qualifying spot (12th) covering the distance in 3:50.04. Sanaa Barnes will compete in the High Jump.

Penn had the highest number of athletes going to Austin, and will run in the women’s 4×400 meter relay race. The team of Skyla Wilson, Cecil Ene, Nia Akins, and Uchechi Nwogwugwu qualified for the nationals with a time 3:32.12, a school best. This is the first Penn 4×400 women’s team to run in the national meet. The time was the 5th fastest overall in the event.

Akins will compete is the women’s 800 meters as she ran a personal best of 2:03.44, the fastest qualifying time. Nwogwugwu turned in a 52.51 in the 400 meters, a school-best in taking the 11th spot.

Colin Daly will run for Penn in the Steeplechase crossing the line in 8:46.08, the 11th fastest qualifying time.

A quintet of Quakers will compete on the field in Austin. Anna Peyton Malizia was the top qualifier in the women’s high jump at 1.80m. In the Hammer Throw Mayyi Mahama recorded a personal best 62.23m the 8th longest throw overall. Ashley Anumba got the last qualifying spot in the discus with a distance of 52.49m. Sean Clarke placed 11th in the men’s pole vault with a height of 5.21m. He was in a group of 7 vaulters at that height, and advanced on fewer misses. Marc Minichello finished 8th in the Javelin with a throw of 67.35m.

There were a total of 6 athletes from La Salle (2), Saint Joseph’s (1), and Temple (3) at the East Preliminaries, but did not advance.

Written By: Glenn Papazian

Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com

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