April 23, 2009
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - The Auburn track and field teams opened competition at the Penn Relays Thursday, with three women and a relay team in action.
The women's 4x100-meter relay team highlighted the day by advancing to Friday afternoon's final. The team of junior Shaquela Williams, sophomores Joanna Atkins and Cache Armbrister and freshman Nivea Smith overcame a pair of sloppy exchanges to still post the field's third-best time in the prelims of 44.89. They will run in the finals Friday at 1:10 p.m. ET.
Junior Laurel Pritchard finished a solid fourth in the women's 10,000 meter championship race, but after 35 minutes of running, missed the NCAA provisional qualifying time by just over half a second. She finished with a time of 35:00.56.
Sophomore Amber Riley ran in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase championship division, finishing 11th in 10:57.54.
The first competitor of the day was sophomore Latoya Parkinson, who finished 27th in the women's 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:02.62.
The Penn Relays will continue through Saturday, while Auburn will also have athletes in action Friday at the Oregon Relays and the Triton Invitational in San Diego.