Firebirds Heat Up at Colonial Relays
WILLIAMSBURG, VA - The Month of April got off to a flying start with the Firebirds having strong performances at the 49th installment of the Colonial Relays held at William & Mary University April 4th -5th.
The first day of action saw several individual performances on the track and in the field. Friday morning saw several Firebirds lined up in the 100M prelims. Senior Kaydian Jones (Journalism – Kingston, Jamaica/St. Andrew HS) was 2nd in Heat 5 in 12.64 and 19th best overall among the 84 competitors. Senior Jasmine Smith (Architecture – Baltimore, MD/Polytechnic HS) ran 12.78 for 26th best, followed in the standings by her teammate, freshman Brittany Okon (Health Education – Bronx, NY/Pelham Prep Academy) who ran 12.83 for 27th overall.
In the Field on Friday, four long jumpers competed for the Firebirds. Jones was back in action and competed in the Championship section of the Long Jump, getting out to 5.30M for 10th best overall amongst 43 competitors. Okon was 12th in the University Section of the Long Jump with a mark of 5.16M in the large field of 48 jumpers. Sophomore Simone Grant (Health Education – Bronx, NY/Pelham Prep Academy) jumped 5.07M for 20th in that section while senior Shauna-Kay Creary (Accounting – Kingston, Jamaica/St. Andrew HS) jumped 4.96M for 26th.
Action returned to the track where the Firebirds took aim at the 400M. Sophomore Jerily Benjamin (Health Education – Queens, NY/Phillip Randolph HS) ran a new personal best of 56.90 finishing 3rd in Section 2 of the 400M and 9th best overall in a large field of 63 competitors. Her time is not too far off of the NCAA Provisional qualifying mark of 56.00. Junior Kimoy Mais (Mass Media – St. Andrew, Jamaica/St. Andrew HS) gave the Firebirds some presence in the middle distance events competing in the 800M and running her collegiate best time of 2:21.09 for 4th of 11 in Section 4 of the University Section. Her time was 30th in the large field of 75 competitors in the event.
The Firebirds would then line up several athletes in the 200M to close out their presence in the Friday Evening Session of the Meet. Leading the way was Kaydian Jones, who ran 25.29 to finish 14th in a field of 89 competitors. Grant ran 25.52 for 5th in Section 2 and finished 21st of the 89 runners in the 200M. Also, sophomore Christina Baker (Forensic Psychology – Kingston, Jamaica/Collegiate Institute for Math & Science) ran a personal best 26.48 for 2nd in Section 9 and 53rd overall. Another personal best came earlier in the day from sophomore Jeania Bagley (Journalism – Forestville, MD/Friendly HS) where she ran 17.55 in the 110M Hurdles.
Day 2 of the meet saw action switch to the Relays where the Firebirds showed their versatility by having good performances in four different relay events. First up was the 4x100M where the quartet of Brittany Okon, Shauna-Kay Creary, Jasmine Smith and Jerily Benjamin ran 48.75 for 4th in Section 2 and 10th among 20 4x100M Teams. Creary also spent time on the runway prior to running the 4x100M Relay, as she participated in the Triple Jump. She finished 10th in the Preliminary round with a jump of 11.15M and was followed by teammate Simone Grant who jumped 11.10M for 11th among 14 jumpers in the Championship Section of the event.
In the Sprint Medley Relay the team of Brittany Okon, Christina Baker, freshman Charmaine Sweeney and Kimoy Mais were 5th in the First Section of the event and 7th best overall among 19 teams with a time of 4:12.40. Sweeney and Baker would return to join Creary and Smith on the 4x200M Relay where they ran a very competitive race. After a tremendous lead-off leg from Creary, the Firebirds battled with Wagner throughout the remaining legs, but finished 2nd in Section 2 of the event and 10th best of 25 teams competing.
The momentum carried over all the way into the last event, the 4x400M Relay. Kaydian Jones helped the Firebirds get out in front of the pack with a great lead-off leg, and Jerily Benjamin ran a tremendous 2nd leg to open up a wide margin. Sophomore Marlena Wright (Journalism – Bronx, NY/Dewitt Clinton HS) just held that lead until the final exchange which saw anchor Simone Grant getting the baton just a step behind Bucknell University. With an aggressive move down the backstretch, she went in front and would not relinquish that lead, pulling away the last 100M to lead the Firebirds to victory, in an NCAA Provisional qualifying time of 3:46.51. This time currently ranks the Firebirds 10th best in the Nation in the 4x400M. This victory marks the first win for any Firebird Student-athlete or Relay team at the Colonial Relays, which is now in it's 49th year of competition.
Head coach Alton McKenzie said that the success the four relay teams had on Saturday in what is an extremely competitive meet featuring many Division I schools, show what exceptional resilience and depth the team has.
"The team responded well to being at a very competitive meet and stepped up as a group and competed hard," McKenzie said. "Winning the 4x400M ensured we ended the meet on a high note and they will be etched in history as 2014 Colonial Relay Champions. We will use this momentum to carry us through the next few weeks as we gear up for bigger meets throughout April. Overall we learned a lot at the Colonial Relays, which I believe will help us in the weeks to come."
The Firebirds continue their Outdoor Season at the George Mason Spring Invitational next week, April 12th.