College Track & field
Broncs at Penn Relays-Day One
PHILADELPHIA, PA—Several members of the Rider University track & field teams are taking part in the 119th Penn Relay Carnival, held at Franklin Field on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania today through Saturday.
"Our goal was to come here and set PRs (personal records) and break team records and in the first six events we did that four times," said Rider head coach Bob Hamer. "That was fantastic."
The women's 4 x 100 relay of freshman Dashana Ransome (Irvington, NJ), senior Mia Riley (West Caldwell, N.J./James Caldwell), freshman Miranda Roberts (Sewell, NJ/Washington Twp.) and freshman La'tazah Coleman (Middletown, DE/Appoquinimink) broke the Rider record with a clocking of 47.14 (47.67 was the old record set in 2010. Riley was also on that relay).
That placed Rider 25th of 62 teams overall, with the top 24 moving on to the finals. "Mia got to keep it going," Hamer said of keeping her name in the record books. "She wasn't going down without a fight. We'll get to run that again at the MAACs and the ECAC Championships."
Rider placed fourth of nine teams in heat number one, behind Texas A&M and ahead of Northern Illinois and Princeton.
Ransome advances to the Eastern LJ finals after placing seventh in a Rider-record long jump of 5.64 meters (18' 6" old record was 18' 3.75").
"Dashana just had a tremendous day," Hamer said. "She led off the 4 x 100 and then had four jumps over 18 feet."
Rider's DMR relay team of senior Megan Elgin (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks East) , sophomore Ashley Edwards (Westfield, NJ), freshman Madeline Hummel (Marlton, NJ/Holy Cross) and sophomore Emily Ritter (Millsboro, DE/Sussex Tech) set a new Rider record of 11:48.25 competing in the College Women's Distance Medley Championship of America against the likes of Villanova, Kentucky, Georgetown, Duke and LSU. "Any time you can come to an event as big as this and handle the enviorment and then set a school record is a big win," Hamer said.
Rider's 4 x 400 relay team of freshman Nicole Georgia (Lincoln Park, NJ/Boonton), senior Erin McMullin (Philadelphia, PA/Nazareth Academy), Riley and Coleman placed second in its heat (3:53.10) but did not advance to the finals. "Our goal was to get the ECAC mark and we fell a little short but we ran really well," Hamer said. "It was a great experience for them. Erin ran a great leg."
Senior Nicole Tassello (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) broke the Rider record in the 10,000m by 18 seconds with an ECAC qualifying time of 36:50.20.
Sophomore Anthony Dentino (Sewell, NJ/Washington Twp.) finished 21st of 44 in the 10,000 meters with a time of 30:51.50.
The rest of the men compete on Friday and Saturday.
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