From SAU Sports Information Office
RALEIGH, N.C. (April 25) – For the second consecutive year, Shannon Kalawan (Jr./Westmoreland, Jamaica) of Saint Augustine’s University opened the prestigious Penn Relays with a victory in the women’s 400 hurdles at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday.
Running in the college division, Kalawan crossed the finish line first in 57.37 seconds at Franklin Field. She defeated a field of 52 hurdlers, mostly from Division I schools. Kalawan ran her winning time in the first heat. Reanda Richards of Rutgers University finished second in the heat and overall in 57.58.
The provisional time is a season best for Kalawan, the 2018 NCAA DII national women’s 400 hurdles champion. It is also the fastest women’s 400 hurdles time in Division II this season.
The women’s 400 hurdles was the first running event in the Penn Relays this weekend.
Later in the day, Kalawan was part of the 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams that qualified for the college division finals of each event. The 4×100 squad, including Jaria Hoyte (Fr./St. Phillip, Barbados), Amanda Crawford (Jr./Brooklyn, NY) and Davia Smith (Sr./Manchester, Jamaica) ran a provisional time of 3:41.51 in the preliminaries. The 4×400 team, including Crawford, Tashoy Blake (Jr./Clarendon, Jamaica) and Danielle Scantlebury (St. George, Barbados), posted a provisional time of 46.17 in the heats. The women’s 4×100 final is Friday at 1 p.m. and the women’s 4×400 final is Saturday at 2:07 p.m.
