April 22, 2010
AUBURN - The Auburn track and field teams opened competition at the 115th Penn Relays Thursday, with a light day of competition that included just three Auburn relays in competition.
Two Auburn women's relay teams advance to the Championship of America finals by finishing in the top eight of the preliminaries. The women's 4x100-meter relay team advanced by posting the fourth-best mark in the field during the prelims. The team of Shaquela Williams, Joanna Atkins, Shaniqua Ferguson and Nivea Smith clocked a time of 44.12 seconds, and will run in the finals on Friday afternoon.
In the 4x400-meter relay, the Tigers posted the eighth-best mark in the field. The group of CeCe Williams, Cache Armbrister, Latoya Parkinson and Atkins finished with a time of 3:37.10 and will participate in the finals of that event on Saturday.
The Tigers also competed in the college section of the women's distance medley relay on Thursday. The team of Stephanie Barnes, Kai Selvon, Laurel Pritchard and Holly Knight posted a time of 11:46.76 while finishing in 10th place.
"Our two women's relays made the finals which was our goal, so we had a good start," said head coach Ralph Spry. "This is a very important meet for us for a couple of reasons. It's a big recruiting tool for us, and it's our last weekend of competition for most of our kids before the conference championships. So it's important for us to run well and get sharp this weekend."
The Tigers will continue action at the Penn Relays on Friday and Saturday.