CHESTER, Pa. - - In their third event of the 2019 outdoor season, the Wilmington University men's and women's track and field teams continue to improve, setting new top times in nearly every event at the Danny Curan Invitational hosted by Widener University on Friday and Saturday.
In their first team scoring event of the year, the Wildcats scored in at least one event on each side, with Dyonne Hicks providing points for the women in two events. The men's 4x400m relay team gave the Wildcats three points with a sixth place finish.
Hicks (Lanham, Md./Charles Herbert Flowers) scored in both her jump events on Saturday, proving the Wildcats their 3.5 points in the highly occupied Invitational.
Her best jumps in the long jump and triple jump were also a team best so far this season, as she finished sixth out of 51 marked jumps with a distance of 4.99 meters for three team points. She marked in her first five jumps, getting her day's best 4.99 meters in her fifth jump. She also had jumps of 4.97 and 4.92 in the event. Eastern's Nicole Weenink won the event with a jump of 5.47 meters.
Hicks then came back in the triple jump and tied for eighth overall out of 28 marks, giving the team 0.5 points in the event. After a foul on her first attempt, Hicks came back with a jump of 10.29 meters before going for 10.52 meters in her third attempt. Eastern's Nicole Weenink won the triple jump event as well, this time with a jump of 11.78 meters.
On the men's side, the 4x100 meter relay team finished sixth out of 22 qualifying teams, giving the men's program three points in the invitational. Miguel Suero, Mark Corrigan, Ellis McSharry, and Manuel Suero ran a new season's best in the meet, running the four laps in a time of 3:30.94, nearly eight seconds faster than their two previous meets. Rowan won the event with a time of 3:19.27.
A number of other season's best happened at the Danny Curan Invitational on the women's side, including Dyonne Hicks running the 200m event in 27.20 to finish 25th out of 120 runner. Lina Boussif ran the fastest 400m event of the season, finishing the lap in 1:11.02 for a 44th/51 place finish.
Grace Slate ran two seconds faster than last week in the 800m event, finishing in 2:32.45 for a 41st/103 place finish. Julia Merritt shaved nearly 16 seconds off the season's best 1,500m time, running in 5:16.88. Both relays also got faster on Saturday, as Dyonne Hicks, Lina Boussif, Krysta Memis, and Emily Navarrete ran two seconds faster in the 4x100m relay with a time of 54.67 while Gabby Brown, Julia Merritt, Krysta Memis, and Grace Slate ran nearly 11 seconds faster than last weekend in the 4x100m relay with a time of 4:33.07.
Finally, Bianca Turner had new season's best in two of her throws, launching the shot put 9.35 meters to finish 34th of 44. She also set a new season's best in the hammer throw, tossing it 32.47 meters, over three meters farther than last weekend.
On the men's side, Kareem Lewis Ra ran the fastest 100 meters of the season so far, sprinting to a time of 11.61 seconds. He also ran the fastest 200 meters of the season, finishing 40th out of 119 runners with a time of 23.51 seconds. Keeping with the sprints, Manuel Suero ran the fastest 400 meters of the year, finishing 20th out of 101 runners with a time of 51.62 seconds. Suero then ran the 800 meters in a time of 2:01.49, finishing the two laps over nine seconds faster than the previous best.
Twin brother Miguel Suero bested his own time from last week by nearly eight seconds in the 1,500-meter event, running in 4:07.58 to finish 19th out of 130 runners.
James Kennedy also set a new mark in the 5,000 meter event, running in 16:17.87 to finish 62nd out of 102 runners. Brandon Cruz ran the 10,000 meter event for the first time this year, finishing 11th overall out of 42 runners wit a time of 32:55.65 while David Milan ran the 400-meter hurdles for the first time with a time of 1:02.85.
Finally, Daniel Loyo set new season's best in the long and triple jump, going for 5.56 meters and a 42nd place finish in the long jump before a 12.14 meter triple jump, finishing 21st overall.
Rowan won the men's even with a score of 129 while Cortland State finished second with 116 points. Messiah won the women's side with 94 points while The College of New Jersey finished second overall with a score of 88 points.
The Wildcats inaugural season continues next weekend as they travel to William & Mary to compete in the Colonial Relays at the Walter J. Zable Stadium at Cary Field in Williamsburg, Virginia. The three-day event starts Thursday.
