Firebirds Impress at Indoor Track & Field Season Opener at Eastern Shore Cappy Anderson Invitational

PRINCESS ANNE, MD – The University of the District of Columbia opened its 2018-19 Indoor Track & Field season with an impressive performance at the Eastern Shore Cappy Anderson Invitational on Saturday, December 1^st.

Highlighting the team's performance was the individual effort of senior Shaneika Bowra, who won 1^st place in the 60M Dash with a time of 7.77s, took 4^th place in the 200M Dash with a time of 26.01s, and ran the 2^nd leg of the 4x400M Relay which finished in 4:14.21 for 4^th place out of 11 teams.

Bowra was one of seven Firebirds to compete among the field of 25 in the 60M Dash event. She initially took 2^nd place in the preliminary round with a time of 7.89, just .01 behind Howard University's Uchechi Onuoha. She bettered her time in the Finals by .12 to win the field. Three other UDC sprinters finished in the top-15, including: freshman Patricia McLean (9^th, 7.97s), freshman Shanise Rose (13^th, 8.05s), and junior Shannel Hibbert (14^th, 8.09s).

UDC also had a strong showing in the 200M Dash, where once again, seven different Firebirds competed. Bowra once again led the way with a 4^th place showing, and three other UDC sprinters placed in the top-15 among the 36 competitors in this event. Hibbert finished 10^th at 26.65s, McLean 11^th at 26.72s, and junior Cierra Roberts placed 12^th with a time of 26.84s.

The Firebirds also performed well in the 4x400M Relay event, where senior Dabrin Snorton, Bowra, McLean and Hibbert teamed up to run a 4:14.21 and place 4^th out of 11 teams.

In the field events, Roberts took 2^nd place out of 10 competitors in the Long Jump with a leap of 5.42M, and McLean finished 3^rd with a leap of 5.34M. Also, senior Tajah Franklin took 7^th place out of nine in the shot put event with a throw of 9.29M.

Next up, UDC will compete in the Spartan Invitational on January 11^th, 2019.