Monday, May 7, 2012

Shericka Ward Advances to Finals of 100 Meter Hurdles at Penn Relays, April 27, 2012

Shericka Ward advanced to the finals of the 100 meter hurdles on Saturday afternoon by finishing second in her preliminary heat.
Ward automatically advanced to finals by placing second in her preliminary heat

April 27, 2012
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Senior sprinter Shericka Ward (Leesburg, Fla.) automatically advanced to the finals of the 100 meter hurdles by coming in second in her preliminary heat at Franklin Field, where Villanova was competing during the second day of the Penn Relays on Friday afternoon. In addition to the 100 meter hurdles the Wildcats competed in the 4x1500 meter relay and the Eastern section of the high jump on Friday.

Ward registered a time of 13.41 in the first heat of the 100 meter hurdles and is one of nine runners from a preliminary field of 30 who are advancing to the finals tomorrow afternoon. The top two runners from each of three heats, plus the next three fastest times all moved on to the finals.

This is the third straight year that Ward has advanced to the finals in the 100 meter hurdles at the Penn Relays and her time in today's heat was the fifth-fastest overall in the field. The finals are scheduled for 3:15 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

In the 4x1500 meter relay Villanova had a lineup of junior Bogdana Mimic (Pancevo, Serbia), sophomores Emily Lipari (Greenvale, N.Y.) and Nicky Akande (Lawrenceville, Ga.) and senior Sheila Reid (Newmarket, Ont.) and the quartet came in third with a time of 17:41.12.

The teams remained in a close pack for nearly two full legs of the relay but with 600 meters left in the second leg Oregon opened up a lead that it never relinquished and went on to capture the Championship of America title. Reid took the baton for the anchor leg with Oregon leading by nearly 100 meters and ran a split of 4:20.1. 

"I thought we could run with Oregon coming into the race. They are a very solid team but just from looking at our 1500 meters times from the season I knew we could stay with them. The team is disappointed but we are walking away with a win this weekend and we are happy about that. Oregon is a very good team and they ran great."

Sophomore Samantha Francis (Kingston, Jamaica) registered a distance of 11.66 meters in the Eastern section of the triple jump. She came in 10th out of 19 athletes in her section.




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