Howard Track & Field Continues to Excel at the Penn Relays

Pair of relay squads finish runner up; Hudson qualifies for MEAC Championships

(Photo Credit – Yusuf Abdullah)

PHILADELPHIA (April 26, 2019) – Howard University men’s and women’s track and field continued its success at the 125^th annual Penn Relays with a pair of runner up finishes in front of 38,003 fans inside Franklin Field.

"We came so close to bringing home two Penn Relays winners’ plaques in the 4x100 and Sprint Medley Relay,” said Howard Director of Track and Field David Oliver. “[But] getting a couple of second place finishes should be a good experience for the ladies.”

Early afternoon, the 4x100 squad of junior Uchechi Onuoha (Yardly, Pa.), sophomores Jessika Gbai (Philadelphia) and Ameenah Saalih (Willingboro, N.J.) and freshman Kennedy Lewis (Atlanta) reached the College Women’s Eastern Finals where they posted a 46.26 mark. Stony Brook won the event with a 45.89 time.

That evening, the sprint medley team of Gbai, Onuoha, junior Sydney Benson (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.) and sophomore Ozioma Scott (Georgetown, Guyana) came up just short, but finished second behind Big Ten foe Maryland, clocking in at 4:00.89.

“Each student-athlete will be back next year,” Director Oliver added. “Hopefully, this near miss will drive them when we return in 2020.”

In the field, senior thrower David Hudson (New Rochelle, N.Y.) competed in the men’s shot put where he qualified for next week’s Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Outdoor Championships in Greensboro, N.C., tossing a new personal best at 14.57m (47’9.5”).

"David Hudson got the day started off extremely well for us,” Director Oliver stated. “He threw a huge personal best. That's a testament to the great work [David] Hudson and Coach Danny Stokes have been putting in, having your best performance when the lights shine the brightest is exactly what this sport is all about."

Other notable Bison competing on Day Two include second-year jumper Rachel Edler (Stone Mountain, Ga.) leaping 11.43m (37’6.75”) in the triple jump while the men’s sprint medley relay squad of seniors Tariq Fullerton (Kingston, Jamaica) and Korey Lombard (Antioch, Calif.), sophomore Mekhi Closson (Baltimore) and freshman Ashton Daniel (Athens, Ga.) took fifth overall, running a 3:30.99 time.

To view results from Day Two at the Penn Relays, please click here.

The prestigious event continues Saturday (April 27), starting at 9 a.m. inside Franklin Field.

“We're still in the hunt in the [women’s] 4x400m relay,” Director Oliver concluded. “So [we’re] hoping tomorrow, we'll cross that finish line first."