BEREA, Ohio – Franciscan women's track & field saw the return of a few of their top competitors while Brad Montgomery continued to zero in on the ECAC qualifying distance and the Sparky Adams Invitational at Baldwin Wallace University.
The returners for the women were sophomore sprinter Susana Almeida and junior sprinter Natia Smith. Almeida returned to run a 1:02.6 in the 400 and set a new school record in the 200 with a time of 27.03 after being injured for the last three weeks.
"That's a pretty good time to come back on," head coach Rob Copeland said. "I really want to give some praise to our training staff because she's basically been in their hands for the last few weeks and they've been having her do the right things to keep what she's already built up to to that point."
Montgomery continued to improve his distance in the shotput with each meet, setting a new personal and school record and finishing in sixth with a throw of 13.74m, a half meter off the qualifying distance for the ECAC Championships.
"Again, he's inching closer," Copeland said. "He's a gifted athlete. There's no wasted motion in what he does. He came to us with good technique and coaches Paul Rue and Kenny Davis have really done a good job of maximizing his capability."
Another athlete who maximized their capabilities was sophomore distance runner Jenny Gray who won the 10k with a time of 46:16.67.
"She is the definition of consistency. She never deviates off a second or two of her marked times for her splits and that's over 25 laps," Copeland said. "It's pretty impressive to watch someone who understands the race that their running, understands their strategy, and executes it."
The other impressive execution of the day came from James Downs who not only set a new personal record but set a new school record in the 100 with a time of 11.54.
"He's more of a 200 or 400 runner but we put him in the 100 today and it paid off for him," Copeland said. "He just figures out a way to make things works."
The team has one more full meet left in the season when they travel to Penn St.-Behrend on April 25 but Copeland said some of the athletes who have just returned from injury, as well as Montgomery who is striving for ECACs, may participate in other meets to improve their marks.
