Penn women's track and field earn multiple bids for NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships

This past week, Penn women’s track and field competed at the Outdoor NCAA Track and Field East First Round meet at University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky. Representing the Red and Blue were 28 athletes, with 16 on the women’s side. The women competed on Thursday and Saturday, with the heats taking place on Thursday and the quarterfinals on Saturday.

For the East First Round meet, each individual event contained 48 athletes along with the top 24 relay teams. In order to qualify for the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships that take place from June 5 to June 8, an athlete must place in the top 12 in their individual event. For relays, the top 12 teams will qualify from each regional event.

“I’m very proud of how well the team competed. I congratulate all of our coaches and support staff and then clearly all the athletes for having so many events qualify for the NCAAs and then competing so well across a wide spectrum of events,” said coach Steve Dolan reflecting on the week’s performances. “We were in a lot of field events, sporting events, and distance events and the team competed admirably throughout the whole weekend.”

In the first-round heats on Thursday, a plethora of Quakers competed in a multitude of events. Senior star Isabella Whittaker, DP’s Women Athlete of the Year, finished in eighth after the preliminary round with a time of 52.28 seconds in the 400 meter race. In the 100m dash, sophomore Moforehan Abinusawa placed 22nd with a time of 11.40 seconds, just qualifying her for Saturday. Abinusawa also competed in the 200m, placing 25th with a time of 23.37 seconds.

Other prelim results included junior Bronwyn Patterson’s tying for 11th in the 800m race, with a time of 2:04.25 seconds. The only event that was a semifinal on the day was the women’s 10000m race, which saw sophomore Lily Murphy punch her ticket to Oregon with an eighth-place finish and a time of 33:04.29 seconds.

In the quarterfinals on Saturday, it was clear from the jump that the Red and Blue would need to match the intensity of the competition in order to make the NCAA Championships. This could not be truer for one Quaker in particular, who stepped up her game in record-breaking fashion. Already holding the Ivy League record in the 400m, Whittaker set her sights on Oregon by breaking her own record in a blazing time of 50.82 seconds, placing fourth in the event. With the performance, Whittaker set a personal best time while also going under the 51-second barrier for the first time in her illustrious college career.

“I knew that the way I ran my prelims race wasn't going to cut it… so I had a really intense race plan, and kind of stuck to that as best as I could,” Whittaker said on her 400m performance. “Still kind of trying to figure out the middle of my race a little bit more… but I’m really happy with kind of the way that I executed… I was dialed in, I was ready to go. I really just came out with the mentality of trying to win.”

On the day, two other athletes would have standout performances including senior Olivia Morganti. Morganti, who recently took home first place in the Penn relays in the 3000m steeplechase, placed 11th with a time of 10:07.44 seconds. The time was just off her program record that she ran a month ago at Penn relays, which she ran in 9:57.94 seconds. Speaking of distance events, Murphy would also qualify for the NCAA Championships'  5000m distance event in a Penn record time of 15:51.27 seconds, which broke her own record that she previously held by more than five seconds.

For relays, Penn’s 4x100-meter team of junior Caia Gelli, Abinusawa, Whittaker, and sophomore Christiana Nwachuku placed ninth in the event in a Penn record time of 43.74 seconds. Additionally, in the 4x400-meter relay, senior Aliya Garozzo, Nwachuku, junior Jocelyn Niemiec, and Whittaker finished in 10th with a time of 3:29.93 to also secure a spot for NCAA championships.

“This is a historic group for us… this group has continued to break our school records and even some of our Ivy League records,” Dolan said. “I can't wait to see them compete against the best in the NCAA out in Oregon.”

Looking ahead, Penn will be sending three athletes in individual events as well as two relays west to the Beaver State. After getting a taste of elite, high-level competition in Kentucky, the Quakers hope to raise the bar once more in one of the sports’ biggest stages in the NCAA championships at Oregon’s Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. From there, the Red and Blue will then gear up for what is sure to be an exciting Olympic season, starting with the Olympic Trials in late June.