(Staten Island, N.Y./Albany, N.Y.) – This past weekend, the Delaware State track & field program continued the indoor portion of its season with the Spartan Regional Invite and Great Dane U of Albany Invitational.
“The team had a 50-50 performance. Friday's meet went well for the level of competition and the fact [that] we were successful in a few events without the use of some of [our] top runners on the team,” said first-year head coach Damion Drummond. “The team needs to improve on distance and technical events. The women's program is young, but has enough senior leadership that can take them over the edge this season. On the men's side we are going to need some mature leaders to be the driving force.”
Headlining DSU's efforts in the Spartan Regional Invitational on the women's side was Tremaecia Sample, Deja Johnson, Fanta Ba, and Raquel Hughes placing first (1:43.71) in the 4x200-Meter Relay, while the team of Johnson, Omealla Gordon, Rayanna Releford and Faleesha Dowe also finished first (3:56.77) in the 4x400-Meter Relay.
In the 200-Meter Dash, five Hornets placed in the top 20, led by Faleesha Dowe (second - 25.78), Sample (third – 26.35), Jennifer Goodman (seventh – 26.55), Roselyn Goodman (ninth - 26.75) and Lauren Woods (10th – 26.99). Vanessa Whittingham and Mecca Brown, on the other hand, placed third (1:00.35) and fourth (1:00.36) in the 400-Meter Dash, respectively.
Shining in the field events for the women were Castaysha Lewis (third - 10.93m) and Yasmen Mighty (fourth – 10.10m) in the Triple Jump, whereas Victoria Wilson finished third (10.28m) in the Shot Put and fifth (5.54m) in the Weight Throw.
The men's side featured Emanuel Hitch placing first for the 400-Meter Dash with a time of 49.55, while Julius Allen finished second (7.31) and Joseph Crenshaw third (7.68) in the 60-Meter Dash. In relay action, Hitch and Allen teamed up with Kiyair Lambert and Roderick Brown to finish second (1:32.68) in the 4x200, whereas the team of Hitch, Crenshaw, Charles-Wulff Cochrane and Jonathan Jones placed second in the 4x400 with a time of 3:24.66.
“The first meet in my eyes went okay for me individual wise,” said Lambert, who also clocked a 22.64 in the 200-Meter Dash to finish second. “Team wise we had some ups and downs, but I feel like it was the first meet off the winter break, now it's time to get busy.”
Notable finishes in the field events, meanwhile, were by headlined by Brown (6.88m) and Elijah Awgu (6.40m) registering fourth and sixth place finishes, respectively.
To round out the weekend, Relerford led the way for the women in the Great Dane U of Albany Invitational, thanks to crossing the finish line at 57.12 to place 15th in the 400-Meter Dash.
Wulff-Cochrane, on the other hand, highlighted the men's performance by finishing 24th (49.86) in the 400-Meter Dash.
The Hornets will be back in action next weekend with the NYC Gotham Cup (Staten Island, N.Y.) and Captains Invitational & Combined Events (Newport News, Va.).
