PHILADELPHIA – UMBC junior Alisha Beeman (Bridgeport, Conn./Bunnell/Hartford) reset her own school record in the javelin on Friday evening, and then junior Thor Serafenas (Olney, Md./Good Counsel/Clemson) snapped his own record in the hammer throw, and the UMBC women's 4x200m relay team broke the school record as well, Saturday at the 120th Penn Relays at Franklin Field.
Already the school record holder in the javelin event after breaking the Retriever mark at the FSU Relays in March, Beeman pushed past her record on Friday at Penn. The junior placed fourth in the competition with a heave of 43.92m (144'1"), smashing her previous best by almost seven feet.
Serafenas broke his own mark in the hammer throw for the second time in three weeks and earned his fourth win in the event this season. The senior bested the field at Penn with a new top school toss of 59.59m (195'6"), over two feet beyond his previous best (58.95m; 193'5"), set on April 12 at the Mason Spring Invitational.
The 4x200m relay team of juniors Mercedes Jackson (Huntingtown, Md./Huntingtown) and Briana Young (Bowie, Md./Elizabeth Seton), sophomore Marie Yuille (Bowie, Md./Oakland Mills), and senior Deborah Adelola (Lanham, Md./Bladensburg) made it three Retriever records in two days with a time of 1:37.23. The team placed fourth in the event and clipped the previous record of 1:37.88 set at last year's Penn Relays.
Senior Dennison Long advanced to the finals of the 100m dash by placing sixth yesterday with a time of 10.59, Long trimmed his time on Saturday down to 10.49 to jump a spot up for a fifth-place finish in the finals.
Classmate Trae Proctor (Brandywine, Md./Thomas Stone) competed in the finals of the 110m hurdles on the final day of competition, placing seventh with a time of 14.11.
In the triple jump, senior Shioma Obemeata (New Rochelle, N.Y./Iona Prep/St. Francis) finished 11th out of 25 competitors with a top leap of 14.41m (47'3.5").
The Retriever track and field team now makes its preparation for the 2014 America East Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Vermont on May 3-4.
