BALTIMORE – Senior Shioma Obemeata (New Rochelle, N.Y./Iona Prep/St. Francis) set a personal-best and met the IC4A qualifying standard to win the triple jump competition as the UMBC track and field team wrapped up its weekend of competition at the Morgan State Legacy Meet, Saturday at Hughes Stadium.
Obemeata led a group of Retrievers in breaking personal-bests to move up in the Retriever record book as the senior outclassed the field with a leap of 14.90m (48'10.75"). His jump beats his former best of 14.52m (47'7.75") by over a foot and qualifies him for the IC4A Championships to be held at Princeton in mid-May. The senior also finished tied for fifth in the high jump by clearing 1.88m (6'2").
In the women's high jump, junior Alisha Beeman (Bridgeport, Conn./Bunnell/Hartford) finished in fifth after clearing 1.62m (5'4.25").
Sophomore Abigale Slonski (Griswold, Conn./Griswold) turned in a season-best performance in the women's long jump, recording a leap of 5.10m (16'8.75") to place third at Morgan State and move up to eighth in the UMBC record book.
In the shot put, sophomore Nneoma Edokobi (Rockville, Md./Richard Montgomery) registered a top throw of 12.40m (40'8.25") on the day to finish tenth. The throw currently ranks as the seventh-best in UMBC program history. Senior Yao Adantor (Laurel, Md./Reservoir/Morgan State/Maryland) placed fifth in the men's competition with a top heave of 16.22m (53'2.75").
Adantor also placed in the top ten in the discus, finishing eighth with a top throw on the day of 44.65m (146'6"). Junior Thor Serafenas (Olney, Md./Good Counsel/Clemson) was two spots back in tenth with his toss of 43.06m (141'3").
Sophomore Caitlyn Davis (Clarksville, Md./River Hill) set a new personal-best in the pole vault by clearing 3.15m (10'4") to place third at the meet and move up to second on the Retriever all-time list. On the men's side, senior Liam Stott (Carrboro, N.C./Chapel Hill) also placed third after clearing 4.45m (14'7.25") while Thomas Carman finished in seventh (4.00m; 13'1.5").
In the 400m hurdles, juniors Paulette Fogle (Washington, D.C./Bishop McNamara) and Briana Young (Bowie, Md./Elizabeth Seton) each earned top-ten finishes for UMBC. Fogle crossed the line with a time of 1:01.71 to finish fifth, while Young placed eighth with a time of 1:02.87.
Senior Kirsten McGovern (Sykesville, Md./Century) led a trio of Retrievers to top-ten finishes in the women's 5k. McGovern placed second with a time of 8:15.98 with sophomore Angel Bucci (Upper Darby, Pa./Upper Darby) and junior Julie Gessler (Ellicott City, Md./Institute of Notre Dame) just back in sixth and seventh, respectively.
The men also placed three in the top-ten in the 5k as senior Tom Eldridge (Rocky River, Ohio/Rocky River) led the UMBC pack in fourth with a time of 15:43.22. Sophomore Austin Hayslett (Mount Airy, Md./Urbana) and junior Noah Hutton (Bel Air, Md./North Harford/Philadelphia U.) finished sixth and eighth for the Retrievers.
Sophomore D'Nique Phillip (Elkton, Md./North East) advanced to the finals for the 100m dash with a season-best time of 12.45 and then clipped it down to 12.30 to finish 12th.
UMBC will now send athletes to the prestigious Penn Relays to be held in Philadelphia beginning on Thursday, April 24 at Franklin Field.
