BETHLEHEM, Pa. - - The Wilmington University track and field teams set a number of season's best times and distances this weekend, competing in the 2019 Greyhound Invitational hosted at the Timothy Breidegam Track by Moravian College.
The Wildcats are in the home stretch of their inaugural season, and will head to the prestigious Penn Relays next weekend. Their regular season will end on Sunday when they compete at the Delaware Open on Sunday following the Penn Relays.
On the women's side, Dyonne Hicks had four of the best times and distances of the season for the Wildcats. For the first time this year, she ran a sub 13 second 100-meter race, finishing in 12.93 seconds to come in 10th out of 31 runners. She also ran the 100-meter hurdles for the first time this season, finishing 11th out of 21 runners with a time of 16.61 seconds.
In the field events, she had a season's best 5.21 meter jump in the long jump, coming in a team' best fifth place on Saturday. She also went for 10.65 meters in the triple jump, finishing in sixth out of 19 in the event.
Rosemary Gillam shaved over three seconds off her best 1,500-meter event while also finishing with a team's season best of 5:14.33 and in 12th place out of 36 runners. Julia Merritt became the first female Wildcat to run in the 3000-meter steeplechase, placing fifth of nine runners with a time of 13:03.86. The 4x100-meter relay team also set a new time for the Wildcats, finishing in 53:08 to finish sixth overall.
Moving inside the track, Bianca Turner set new standards in all three of her throws events, besting the year's mark in the shot put, discus, and hammer throw. She finished eighth out of 16 throwers in the shot put with a distance of 9.79 meters while then placing 11th in the discus with a length of 26.53 meters. She then bested her distance in the hammer throw by nearly four meters, finishing in fifth out of 17 throwers with a distance of 36.19.
On the men's side, Miguel Suero became the first Wildcat to break the two-minute barrier in the 800-meter race, finishing in 1:58.58 to place 16th out of 49 runners. Twin brother Manuel Suero set a new time in the 400-meter event, nearly breaking the 51-second mark with a time of 51:08 to come I 10th out of 39 runners.
Ellis McSharry set another standard in the spring events, running the 200-meter in a new season's best. He finished 12th overall (45 runners) with a time of 23.13 seconds. James Kennedy also bested his own time in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, shaving over nine seconds of his time with a 10:26.43 performance to finish 10th.
In the field events, Daniel Loyo set two new distance marks in the jumps while Robbie Stofa set a new mark in the discus. Loyo's jump of 5.74 meters in the long jump was his best of the season by 0.18 meters while he also set a new mark in the triple jump with a distance of 12.52 meters. Stofa threw the discus 34.85 meters to place 16th out of 30.