This past weekend was a busy one for Virginia track and field — from Thursday to Saturday Virginia brought its best to compete in the Penn Relays, one of the biggest stages in collegiate track and field. At the Virginia High Performance meet Sunday the Cavaliers once again scored some excellent performances back home in Charlottesville. In an exciting couple of days, the Cavaliers set multiple personal-best times, broke school records and became ranked collegiately and globally.
Penn Relays
Day One
Junior John Fay opened up competition for the Cavaliers Thursday, throwing a mark of 64.11 meters to qualify for the final in the College Men’s Hammer Throw Championship. He ultimately finished sixth place with a throw of 64.74 meters.
Day Two
The second day saw the competition pick up for the Cavaliers, with junior Margot Appleton, senior Alahna Sabbakhan, graduate student Esther Seeland and senior Anna Workman racing to an impressive third place finish in the College Women’s Distance Medley Relay Championship of America. They ran a time of 10:48.55, obliterating the previous school record by almost 9 seconds.
The Cavaliers impressed on the men’s side of the distance medley relay Championship of America, with the quartet of senior Wes Porter, junior Alex Sherman, senior Conor Murphy and sophomore Gary Martin running a gutsy race to stay in contention for the title for the entirety of the race. On the final leg, Martin was edged out by Villanova and Georgetown to finish in third place with a time of 9:36.61.
The Cavaliers also fared well in the field events, with junior Carly Tarentino taking the victory in the College Women’s High Jump with a personal-best mark of 1.78 meters. Senior Mahkaia Lee took fourth place in the College Women’s Long Jump with a mark of 5.84 meters.
Day Three
The final day in Philadelphia was an extremely successful one for the Cavaliers. It got off to a phenomenal start with the College Men’s 4xMile Championship of America Relay. The team — consisting of Porter, sophomore Will Anthony, senior Yasin Sado and Martin finished in second place — was just beaten to the line by Villanova following a fantastic anchor leg by Martin, where he opted to keep a nice pace instead of running a tactical race. The quartet was rewarded with a blistering time of 15:52.30. This stellar time broke a Virginia record and earned them the No. 2 all-time record in collegiate history. The Cavaliers are now one of only three college teams to have broken 16 minutes in the event.
The College Women’s 4x1500 Championship of America relay also saw great amounts of success for the Cavaliers, as the team of Seeland, freshman Tatum David, Workman and Appleton finished second in a time of 17:08.05 to break the Virginia record by a staggering 40 seconds and achieve the fourth-fastest time in collegiate history.
Moving down in distance, the 4x800 relays also had a good outing. On the men’s side, freshman Alex Leath, sophomore James Donahue, Murphy and senior Shane Cohen ran an impressive time of 7:16.75 in the College Men’s 4x800 Championship of America to finish in third place.
The women put on a similar performance, as the quartet of graduate student Maggie Hock, graduate student Caroline Timm, Senior Alahna Sabbahkan and David finished in fourth place with a time of 8:33.90.
The field athletes also had their fair share of success, as senior Jacob Lemmon won the College Men’s Discus Throw with a personal-best mark of 60.04 meters. Junior Janae Profit also excelled in the event, finishing seventh in the College Women’s Discus Throw with a mark of 49.46 meters. She later earned second place in the College Women’s Shot Put Championship with a throw of 15.85 meters. Vin Lananna, director of track and field and cross country, was very pleased with his team.
“I am incredibly proud of our men and women,” Lananna said. “The University of Virginia’s name was prominent in front of a packed house at Franklin Field. Whether we were running, jumping or throwing, U.Va. track and field has become synonymous with excellence.”
Virginia High Performance
The Cavaliers wrapped up regular-season competition in Charlottesville Sunday. Having just gotten back from the Penn Relays, Hock displayed a great deal of stamina to finish third in the women’s 800-meter event. Her time of 2:05.40 is a new outdoor personal-best and moves her to sixth all-time in Virginia history.
Lemmon followed the same tune as Hock, having just arrived in Charlottesville after an event-winning performance at the Penn Relays. He finished second place in the men’s discus throw with a personal-best mark of 60.50 meters, while Profit won the women’s discus with a season-best throw of 51.79 meters.
Junior Heldi Valikaj took the victory in the men’s long jump with a mark of 7.36 meters. Sophomore Justin Rogers finished second in the men’s pole vault with a personal-best clearance of 5.17 meters, moving him to fourth all-time in Virginia history.
Back on the track, senior Jack Eliason took sixth place in the men’s 1500-meter event in a time of 3:44.62, and senior Jacob Hunter took eighth with a season’s best run of 3:45.49. Freshman Gillian Bushee excelled on the women’s side of the event, as she ran a personal-best time of 4:26.05 to place tenth. She was closely followed by junior Luci Ilnicki-Lambert’s twelfth-place finish with a new personal best of 4:29.72. The women’s 3000-meter steeplechase saw graduate student Lizzy Bader take the victory in a massive personal-best time of 10:40.59.
The sprint events did not disappoint either, as sophomore Peter Djan took the victory in the men’s 110-meter hurdles in a time of 14.27 seconds, and sophomore Sophia Akpan won the women's 100-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 14.19 seconds.
The Cavaliers earned a podium sweep in the women’s 400-meter hurdles as senior Emily Alexandru took the victory in a season’s best 59.23 seconds, freshman Brooke’Lyn Drakeford took second in 1:01.97, and Akpan took third in 2:02.06.
The women’s 100-meter dash unfolded in a similar way, as sophomore Sarah Akpan took first place with a personal-best time of 11.51 seconds. Senior Kayla Bonnick took second place in a season-best 11.70 seconds, and freshman Ariel Fletcher placed third with 11.79 seconds.
In the men’s 100-meter event, Djan took second place in 10.50 seconds and senior Jay Pendarvis took third place in 10.75 seconds. Sophomore Jaden Lyons took first place in the men’s 400-meter dash in 48.09 seconds, and senior Anzhelika Parenchuk took the victory in the women’s 400-meter event in 55.32 seconds.
In the 200-meter events, the women’s side saw junior Marlee Morgan earn second place in a personal best time of 24.97 seconds and freshman Lola Kolawole pick up third in a personal-best time of 25.17 seconds. On the men’s side, Pendarvis grabbed first place with a season’s best time of 21.48 seconds, and sophomore Evans White IV secured second place with a time of 21.60 seconds.
The Cavaliers now look ahead to the ACC Outdoor Championships — they will travel to Atlanta next weekend to compete in the event from May 9 to May 11. If this weekend is any indication, Virginia appears poised to make a statement going head-to-head with the best athletes in the conference.
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