April 29, 2000

Junior Mike Brown (Mt. Laurel, N.J.) was the highlight of the day for the Villanova Wildcats at the final day of competition at the 106th running of the Penn Relays held at historic Franklin Field. Brown ran a personal best time of 50.54 to outdistance Fred Sharpe of Clemson and capture the 400 meter hurdle title. Sharpe was timed in 50.60. Brown's victory makes him the first Villanova male to win an individual Penn Relay Championship since Rodney Wilson won the 110 meter hurdles in 1981.

In women's competition, the Wildcat DMR team ran well but missed out on Villanova's second Championship of America in as many days. The team of Kristen Nicolini (Annapolis, Md.), Leashia Rahr (Syracuse, N.Y.), Carmen Douma (Cambridge, Ontario) and Carrie Tollefson (Dawson, Minn.) placed third in a time of 11:01.16. Arkansas ran a strong race en route to the DMR Championship in a time of 10:55.00. Brigham Young tallied a second place finish with a clocking of 10:56.12. Nicolini ran the leadoff 1200 meter leg and was timed in 3:24.7, before handing the baton over to Rahr who ran the quarter in 55.2. Douma recorded a strong 800 meter leg of 2:05.0 before Tollefson finished the relay with a split of 4:36.3 in the final 1600 meters. On Friday, April 28, the Villanova women's 4x1500 meter relay team of Douma, Tollefson, Nicolini and freshman Liz Awtrey (Burke, Va.) won the race with a time of 17:30.38. Arkansas finished second in 17:37.11.

Also today, junior Charmaine Walker (Plainfield, N.J.) ran 13.34 to finish seventh in the 100 meter hurdles.

Both the Villanova men's and women's track & field teams will get back into action next weekend when they travel to Rutgers University for the 2000 Big East Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships.