April 23, 2010
AUBURN - The Auburn track and field teams continued competition at the 115th running of the Penn Relays on Friday, posting one fourth-place finish and recording two of the fastest times in the preliminaries of two other events.
The women's 4x100-meter relay team finished fourth in the Championship of America final, clocking a time of 43.88 seconds. The team of senior Shaquela Williams, juniors Joanna Atkins and Sheniqua Ferguson and sophomore Nivea Smith finished just a half second off their season best of 43.38 that ranks No. 3 in the nation.
Nearly the same group returned an hour later to run in the prelims of the 4x200-meter relay, and posted the second fastest time in the field. Atkins, Smith and Ferguson were joined by junior Cache Armbrister to record a time of 1:32.31 that ranks second in school history. They will compete in the finals on Saturday.
In the prelims of the men's 100 meters, sophomore Marcus Rowland cruised into the finals, winning his heat by a wide margin with a time of 10.25 seconds, which was also the fastest time in the field in any heat. The second-best time in the prelims was 10.39, as Rowland will enter Saturday's final as the favorite.
"We accomplished our mission," said head coach Ralph Spry. "We got our relays into the Championship of American finals, and that lets us know that we're clicking on all cylinders. We're looking forward to more good races tomorrow. It's been a very competitive meet and I'm excited to see how we'll do tomorrow."
Junior Krystal Bodie missed a spot in the finals of the 100-meter hurdles by just one place, finishing 10th in the prelims with a time of 13.43 seconds. Her time was just .02 seconds behind the time of the ninth and final qualifier.
In the college division of the women's triple jump, senior Amelia Anderson finished fifth with a leap of 12.12 meters (39-9.25). In the college women's high jump championship, freshman Maya Pressley tied for ninth with a jump of 1.71 meters (5-7.25).
Shaquela Williams competed in the prelims of the women's 100 meters, missing a spot in the final after finishing 14th with a time of 11.79 seconds.
Competition at the Penn Relays concludes on Saturday. In addition, the Tigers are scheduled to have athletes competing on Saturday at the Coach O Invitational hosted by Troy University, and at the Triton Invitational in San Diego, Calif.