PENN RELAYS MEN REVIEW

What a meet. The Penn Relays again had another fantastic crowd, mainly Jamaican and there were plenty of solid performances. Unfortunately for a second year in a row the University of Florida was unable to live up to the hype at the meet. A dropped baton between Jeremy Hall and Terrell Wilks did not allow the Gators to finish. The men's 4x400 relay dropped the baton on the anchor leg in qualifying. The Gators dominated the college section clocking at 3:05.40 but missed their chance against Mississippi State and Texas A&M.

In the sprint relays as I stated earlier Florida was unable to get the baton around the track and missed out on a big opportunity. Texas A&M went on to win the race in 39.08 almost a full second ahead of 2nd place UTech of Jamaica. The Aggies consisted of Tran Howell, Gerald Phiri, Demetrius Pinder and Curtis Mitchell. The 4x200 relay saw Mississippi State hold on to win clocking in at 1:21.49 (Dwight Mullings, Kendall May, O'Neal Wilder and Tavarris Tate). The Gators clocked a full second slower than their NCAA leading time with a 1:21.53 performance and Texas A&M Demetrius Pinder had a hamstring issue as the third leg Demetrius Pinder. Mississippi State was again the victor in the men's 4x4 holding Tabarie Henry of Texas A&M who dropped the baton in the final exchange. Mississippi State benefited from a strong second leg by Tavaris Tate who had a split of 45.2. Joining Tate was Wilder, Mullings and Emmanuel Mayers. LSU joined the sprint party winning the sprint medley in a time of 3:17.65, Richard Jones brought it home for the Tigers with a 1:48.4 split, joining him was Gabriel Mvumvure, Armanti Hayes and Ade Alleyne Forte.

Oregon tried to pull of the distance sweep, but unfortunately thanks to a solid Virginia anchor in the 4x800 they were unsuccessful. NCAA Indoor Champion freshman Robby Andrews again took it to Andrew Wheating with a split of 1:47.7. The Virginia Cavaliers clocked in at 7:15.38. Alex Bowman, Lance Roeller and Stephen Finley joined Andrews in winning in amazing fashion.
Oregon however was able to take the title in both the 4x mile and Distance Medley Relay. The Ducks clocked in 16:15.14 in the 4xmile winning the race in dominating fashion with second place finishing 5 seconds behind. A team of Mac Fleet, Matt Centrowitz, Michael Magg and A.J. Acosta put on a great show. Centrowitz and Fleet joined, Wheating and Chad Barlow in winning the men's distance medley in 9:30.69.

Clemson took home the title in the men's shuttle hurdle relay clocking in at 56.45 to beat Nebraska. A team of Charlton Rolle, Marcus Maxey, Claudio Caprini and Miller Moss. South Carolina was third but was without Booker Nunley.

In the individual events a surprise in the men's 100, Kimmari Roach of UTech from Jamaica took the title with a time of 10.34 over Auburn's Marcus Rowland. Barrett Nugent of LSU won the 110 meter hurdle title in 13.58 over Nebraska's Lehann Fourie. Johnny Dutch of South Carolina continued his winning ways with 50.09 performance in the men's 400 hurdles.

In the jumping events Omar Craddock was one of few bright spots for the Gators winning the men's triple jump with a leap 53-3.50. Derek Drouin of Indiana did as expected in winning the men's high jump with a leap 7-3.25. In the Pole Vault LSU athlete Josh Dominguez was able to leap to 17-8.50 with fewer jumps.

In the throwing events Kemal Mesic was another win for the Gators, Mesic won the shot put for the first time in school history with a throw of 62-1, Mesic was the only athlete of 60 feet. Walter Henning continued his dominance in the men's hammer throw with a mark of 237-9. John Austin of Duke claimed the title in the javelin with a performance mark of 220-7. Rounding out the throwing events is the men's discus throw won by James Plummer of Rutgers with a throw of 184-8.

What a great meet for the collegiate athletes, our next post is the women's penn relay review.