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Women's Track & Field Has Strong Opening Day at Penn Relays
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April 23, 2015
PHILADELPHIA – The Virginia women’s track and field team opened competition Thursday at the Penn Relays at Franklin Field. The Cavaliers had several school top-10 performances during the first day of the prestigious meet.
“It was more like cross country conditions than outdoor track conditions today,” said head coach Bryan Fetzer. “It was some of the worst conditions to compete that I’ve been apart of in a long time, with it being very windy and temperatures in low 40s and upper 30s. In addition, with the schedule being way behind made it tough to get anything accomplished from an NCAA standpoint.”
Competing in her hometown of Philadelphia, Sara Sargent was fifth in the college women’s 3000m steeplechase, crossing in a PR of 10:33.74. That time ranks her seventh all-time in school history.
Iona Lake (Norwich, England) was fifth in the college women’s 5000m championship with a time 16:15.93 to move her into seventh place on the Virginia all-time list. Sarah Fakler (Phoenix, Ariz.) finished ninth in a time of 16:21.72. In the Olympic Development women’s 5000m, Megan Rebholz (Stafford, Va.) was fourth in a time of 16:41.34.
“Sara and Iona each run a nice PR and other ladies have put themselves in a good position going in to ACC’s in a few weeks.”
In the college women’s pole vault, Virginia had a pair of athletes place in the top 10. Sarah DeVita (Ridgewood, N.J.) was tied for fourth and Bridget Guy (Greensburg, Pa.) was tied for 10th, both clearing 11-11.75.
Christine Bohan (Avon Lake, Ohio) competed in a pair of events, finishing sixth in the college women’s shot put with a mark of 49-4.5 and finishing 23rd in the college women’s discus with a mark of 127-2 .
Heather Smith (Chesapeake, Va.) was 16th in the college women’s 400m hurdles, crossing in 1:01.99. Later in the day Smith joined Vanessa Fabrizio (Denver, Colo.), Kiana Hairston (Manassas, Va.) and Andrea Wright (Chesapeake, Va.) to compete in the college women’s 4x400m, where the quartet finished 18th in a time of 3:49.37.
Virginia also entered a squad in the college women’s 4x100m relay, but did not finish after an exchange error.
“We missed the exchange after having a big lead,” said Fetzer. “Without a doubt we can run with the nation’s best, we just need to execute.”
The Cavaliers will have athletes in action at the Penn Relays on Friday and Saturday before returning home to host the Virginia Grand Prix on May 8.