The Columbia track team kicked off the first day of the 2008 Penn Relays with a few successes on the women’s side.
The Light Blue 4x100-meter relay team placed 42nd overall, beating out Penn and Yale. The Lions did fall to Harvard and Cornell, but the team managed to take down last year’s time, finishing the race in 47.39 seconds. This mark is now the Lions’ second-fastest race time in school history.
The 4x400-meter relay group, composed of junior Marissa Smith and seniors Osamuede Iyoha, Whitney Crayton, and Erika Moses, captured the bronze in the Heptagonal race. The Lions defeated Princeton, Dartmouth, Yale, and Penn with a time of 3:46.91. The squad bested its time of 3:51.60 from last year’s Penn Relays, demonstrating that the Light Blue has more than recovered from the loss of Ashley Williams and Katy Schlichtman, both CC ’07.
Aside from relay competitions, junior Jeff Randall took 11th in his heat of the steeplechase championship, topping last year’s time. Randall raced against runners from nationally ranked Arkansas and Texas A&M. Senior Shelby Leland also scored a top performance, taking fifth in her heat of the woman’s steeplechase championship event. Leland defeated adversaries from Ivy League foes Brown, Princeton, and Cornell. Fellow senior Stephanie Lenihan took eighth in the 3000-meter championship race.
Friday will feature the men’s 4x400-meter Heptagonal relay, the men’s distance medley relay, and the women’s 4x100-meter relay. Competition will last all day and continue on Saturday. The Lions will then compete at the Yale Springtime Invitational, where last year junior Melissa Ikono, senior Whitney Crayton, sophomore Will Ballenthin, and sophomore Chris Hays delivered strong performances.