Davis Shines as Track & Field Competes At Penn State National Open

Friday, January 27

State College, Pa.

4:00 PM

University of Delaware

Penn State National Open

Davis Shines as Track & Field Competes At Penn State National Open

1/28/2023 7:00:00 PM | Track & Field

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – The University of Delaware track & field team headed to Pennsylvania with the goal of taking the state by storm. The Blue Hens split their squad and competed at the two-day meet of Penn State National Open, hosted by Penn State inside PSU Multi-Sport Facility in State College, Pa. this past weekend (Jan. 27-28). A weekend filled with setting nine personal best times and improving on two season-best times, Aja Davis stole the show by setting a personal-best and new program record in the 60m dash.

In her indoor season debut, Davis shaved off three seconds off her 2022 school record time 7.57 and set a new record time of 7.54 in the 60m dash preliminaries (eighth place) and semifinals (ninth place) Friday evening. Trinity Tapper also made her season debut and ran a time of 7.83 (31st place) and Shylehn Ebuenga-Smith crossed the finish line with a season-best time of 8.01 (40th place) preliminaries.

Marie-Frederique Poulin headlined the 400m dash with a season-best time of 57.13, which was good enough for fifth place. Behind her was Carly Schmidt (21st place) and Jenna Scandale (25th place), both coming in at personal-best times of 59.92 and 1:01.60, respectively.

Coming off of her 2022 USATF XC Championship appearance, Nina Sgambelluri took the mile event by storm, finishing with a personal-best time of 4:59.76 (20th place). Tiffany Herrera also ran a personal-best time 5:13.17, which put her in 27th place.

In the 3000m, Autumn Sands (PB-9.48.38) and Sarah Daniels (PB-9.55.90) captured sixth and eight place, respectively. They both added their names in the UD record books with their times sitting in fourth and eighth place, respectively. Molly Lashley, the lone Blue Hen in the 5000m event, finished in fourth place with a personal-best time time of 17:29.15.

This was the first time the Blue Hen 4x400 relay team of Poulin, Davis, Scandale and Schmidt were competing and they finished with a time of 4:00.20, which was good enough for 14th place.

Biola Adeleye led the way for the Blue Hens in the triple jump with a mark of 10.71m (14th place) while Kosie Nkwonta finished in 19th place in the shot put (12.95m (42' 6"). Chioma Njoku made her season debut in the weight throw, capturing seventh place with a mark of 18.79 (61' 7.75"). Lynne Gbadamosi made her debut in the Blue & Gold and absolutely shined in the weight throw as she captured 15th place, launching one for a personal-best mark of 16.50m (54' 1.75"). Gbadamosi's mark now sits sixth in program history. Bethany Clement threw the weight 14.67m (48.' 1.75") that placed her in 27th.

WHATS NEXT
The Blue Hens will return to action opening February's slate of meets at the two-day Rutgers Invitational Feb. 3-4 inside the Armory Track & Field Center in New York.

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