Firebirds Open Indoor Track & Field Season With Solid Performances at UMES Lid Lifter Invitational
BALTIMORE, MD – The University of the District of Columbia Women's Track & Field squad opened its Indoor season on Saturday afternoon at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Lid Lifter Invitational held at the Hytche Center.
The Firebirds, one of only two non-Division I teams at the meet, had several quality individual performances, as well as two great 4x400M Relay runs.
Junior Stacy-Ann Rowe turned in great season-opening performances in the 60M dash and 60M Hurdle races. She ran her best time of the day, 7.94s, in the 60M Finals to place 3rd overall out of 17 competitors, and she was also at her best in the 60M Hurdles Finals, finishing in 9.16s to place 3rd overall out of 15 competitors.
UDC was very successful in the 400M event with three runners in the top-five out of 12 competitors overall. Freshmen Niasia Harding, Temera Duncan and Deasia Greer each impressed in their collegiate debuts, finishing 2nd, 3rd, and 5th, respectively, in this event. Harding finished with a time of 1:00.33, Duncan in1:01.04, and Greer in 1:02.18. Duncan also won her Section and finished 4th of 20 runners overall in the 200M with a time of 26.68s.
Senior Brittany Okon placed 6th out of 17 competitors in the Long Jump event with a leap of 5.23M. She was also 5th overall in the 60M with a time of 8.03s.
Finally, the Firebirds had a 4x400M Relay team compete in both Section 1 and Section 2. The team of junior Shayna Hodge, Rowe, Greer and Temera Duncan finished in 4:15.72 to finish 3rd in Section 1 and 7th overall out of 11 teams. The other team of freshman Shannell Hibbert, Kenlyn Duncan, Okon and Harding finished in 4:16.37 to place 5th in Section 2 and 8th overall.
The Firebirds will now have nearly a month off before they next compete on January 7th at the Father Diamond Invitational at George Mason University.