April 25, 1997
PHILADELPHIA - Powered by a strong surge by sophomore Carrie Tollefson, Villanova captured the Championship of America title in the 4x1500-meter relay at the 1997 Penn Relay Carnival on Friday, April 25, 1997. The Wildcats' Victory was their second in as many days at the prestigious event, and marked their seventh Championship of America plaque in the 4x150-meter event in nine years.
Villanova's leadoff runner was freshman Carmen Douma, followed by Kristine Jost, who posted an unofficial split of 4:20.3, a personal best. Tollefson then followed, and blew away her competition on her last full lap, posting an unoffical split of 4:20.9, the fastest 1500 meters of her career. Senior Krestena Sullivan anchored the foursome and brought home the title.
The Wildcats also were in action in several other events on the afternoon. Junior Kareem Archer placed second in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, while the Wildcat's men's distance medley relay team placed fourth with a time of 9:35.77. Richard Morris, J.R. McIlwain, Brian Lucas, and Stephen Howard comprimised that Villanova quartet.
Villanova will contiue competition in the 103rd Penn Relays on Saturday, April 26.
April 24, 1997
Wildcat Women Win DMR at Penn Relays
At the 103rd Penn Relay Carnival held at Franklin Field, the Villanova women's track team claimed the Championship of America in the Distance Medley Relay. The team of Jurga Marcinkevcuite (So., Valnius, Lithuania), Kesha Walley (Sr., Yeadon, Pa.), Tamieka Grizzle (Fr., Bronx, N.Y.) and Krestena Sullivan (Sr., Kitchener, Ontario) ran the race in 10:57.97 to hold off Georgetown who clocked the relay in 11:01.40.
The DMR championship marked the eighth time in the past 11 years that the Villanova women have won the event at the Penn Relays and it was the 23rd overall title recorded at the relays by the Villanova women.
Marcinkevcuite started the Wildcats off in fine fashion as she ran the 1,200m leg of the race in a personal best of 3:22.0 before handing off to Walley who maintained the Villanova lead with a solid 54.5 split in the 400m. Running in her first Penn Relay race as a collegiate, Grizzle showed no signs of nervousness as she recorded a personal best time of 2:03.8 in the 800m. Using her senior experience, Sullivan ran anchor for the 'Cats as she covered the 1600m portion of the event in 4:37.7 to lead Villanova to a first place finish.
"Coming into this race, I knew that it was going to be a dog fight," said Villanova head coach John Marshall. "I thought that this particular relay team was the best DMR that I have ever coached, but because I knew of how talented the field was, I knew we could still lose. Each leg of the relay did their job and because of that I thought we ran a great race."
In other action at the Penn Relays, Melanie Sklepko (Sr., Youngstown, OH) finished 10th in the 400m hurdles in a time of 60.25.
