University of the District of Columbia Women's Track and Field Conclude Indoor Season; Build Momentum for Spring Season

FAIRFAX, VA - The University of the District of Columbia women's track and field team concluded its Indoor season on Sunday at the George Mason Last Chance Meet.

Highlighting the Firebirds' appearance was a season-best performance and NCAA Championship provisional qualifying race by the 4X400M team. Callister Jones (Fort Washington, MD - Oxon Hill HS) ran a super lead-off leg to give UDC an intial lead among the four teams in the race. Tatyana Commock (Washington, DC - McKlinley Tech) battled injury and Latoya Allen (Washington, DC - Dunbar Senior HS) also gutted out a tough race to maintain the Firebirds' lead. Finally, Kaneesha Hollis (Centreville, MD - North Caroline Senior HS) ran a tremendous anchor leg, but was ultimately no match for a magnificent anchor leg by the Division I St. Francis (PA) team. The team finished with a time of 3:55.28.

"We didn't run a fast enough time to qualify for the NCAA Championships, but running a provisional qualifying time - and our fastest time of the season - is certainly commendable," head coach Alton McKenzie said. "This team really competed hard and left it all on the track. I was very proud of them."

Other notworthy performances for UDC included: Areial Clark's (Kennesaw, GA - North Cobb HS) 12.35M shot-put toss for 4th place out of 13 competitors; Atiya Amis (Washington, DC - Dunbar Senior HS) who ran a 8.05 in the 60M for 4th place in the section 2 final; and Jasmine Smith (Baltimore, MD - Polytechnic HS) who ran a personal-best 8.08 in the 60M to finish 5th in the section 2 final.

"The goal for us as a team was to look to end the Indoor season on a high note and to go after NCAA qualifying marks where possible," McKenzie said. "I feel as though our performance today gives us good momentum heading into the Outdoor season. We are looking forwarard to building on our success this Indoor season in the spring."