Press Release Written by Mitchell Coll

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - - School records fell as the Wilmington University women's & men's track & field teams competed at the Virginia Beach Spring Break Invitational over the weekend in a two-day meet on Friday and Saturday hosted by Virginia Wesleyan University.

Women:

On the women's side, Wilmington was highlighted by four individual first-place finishes, two by Temi Mustapha and one each from Tiffany Banning and Freja Olofsson. The Wildcats also won the 4x800-meter relay.

Temi Mustapha had an impressive weekend on the track and in the sandpit. Mustapha finished first in the prelims on Friday, despite the strong headwind of over 3.6 meters per second. Mustapha would win the 100-meter final the next day at a winning time of 12.81 seconds. Freshman Raven Kennedy placed 6th overall in her first collegiate finals with a time of 13.52 seconds.

On Mustapha's final jump of the day in the triple jump, Mustapha secured first place with a leap of 10.91 meters (2.4w). Mustapha also finished fourth in the long jump on Friday with a season's best of 4.90 meters.

The lone long-distance winner for the Wildcats came out of freshman Tiffany Banning as the Women's 3,000 Meter Run came down to the very last second. Banning was able to out-kick Emma Kline of Franklin & Marshall College to secure the victory with a time of 10:47.31. She improved on her season's best by about two minutes and secured her third school record in her third collegiate track meet. Alexa Crowell also ran a career-best 11:14.20 in the race, good for third place.

Freshmen Freja Olofsson rounded out the individual winners with a first-place victory in the Women's Discus Throw. Olofsson tops 22 other discus throwers to take first overall. Freshmen Jada Obegi finished in the top-8, placing 6th overall with a personal best throw of over five meters with a throw of 32.92 meters. 

The Women's 4x800 meter relay team consisting of Tiffany Banning, Sammy Banning, Alexa Crowell, and Alicia Whyte, won the event by ten seconds with a season's best time of 10:40.75.

In the Women's 5,000-Meter Run, Camila Cornejo and Sammy Banning competed in the event for the first time in the year. Cornejo finished second overall with a time of 21:52.61, and Banning finished fourth with a time of 22:09.19.

The Wildcats continued to see strong finishes in the field and populated throwing events. Jada Obegi highlights the Wilmington throwers by writing her name in the record books. Obeji surpassed Bianca Turner's record of 10.19 meters in 2019 with a throw of 10.51 meters. In addition, Obeji's toss now means that all four throwing school records are held by Wilmington's freshman class of throws between Abigail Chomo (javelin), Freja Olofsson (discus & hammer), and Jada Obegi (shot put).

Viviana Caamano and Abigail Chomo both had third-place finishes. Caamano placed third in the hammer throw with a toss of 37.92 meters, and Chomo with a toss of 27.73 meters in the javelin throw.

Men:

The Wilmington University Men's Track & Field Team enjoyed seven individual event winners and two relay victories this weekend between Friday and Saturday.

Bradley Spencer swept both the hurdle events. Spencer secured first in the 110 Meter Hurdles with a strong time of 15.49 seconds. Jalen Bailey finished in third place with a time of 17.05 seconds. Spencer finished first out of nine 400 Meter Hurdlerers with a time of 57.95 seconds.

Raymon Gonzalez won the Men's 1,500-meter race with a time of 4:08.68 in a field of 15 runners. Mike Dowd placed in the top eight in seventh with a time of 4:33.69. Gonzalez also won the 5,000-meter race the same day, clocking a 16:02.28 time. Nicholas Licup finished in fifth with a time of 19:22.68.

Daniel Wyshinski takes the 3,000-meter race and the WilmU school record. Wyshinski runs an 8:52.98 and is the first Wildcat to run a sub-nine minute in the event. Trent Taylor finished second overall with a time of 9:14.17, and Hayward Boutte Jr. finished fifth with a time of 10:15.90.

Akeel Blake was in familiar form in the jumping events again this weekend, winning both the long and triple jump and finishing second in the high jump. In addition, Akeel Blake nearly jumps his season best in the long jump with a best distance of 7.15 meters. Blake 14.19 (2.5w) was the best in a field of nine jumpers.

The men's relay teams enjoyed two first-place victories in the 4x200-meter and 4x800-meter relay. Jalen Bailey, Juan Fountain, Bradley Spencer, and Akeel Blake won the 4x200-meter relay (1:29.20), a new school record, second in the 4x100-meter relay, and third in the 4x400-meter relay. A new school record in the 4x800-meter relay team of Mike Dowd, Logan Strouse, Daniel Wyshinski, and Raymon Gonzalez run a record-setting pace of 8:09.82.

Josh Varghese finished second in both the shot put (14.05 meters) and the discus throw (42.16 meters). Varghese also improved his javelin season best by 11 meters with a toss of 41.85 meters. Christian Dollard finished 11th out of 27 throwers in the discus event with a season-best of 31.49 meters.

Up Next:

The Wildcats will make a short trip to West Chester University next Saturday, March 25, to compete in the WCU Invite. The schedule should be posted for the order of events later this week.