Dukes Complete Day Two of Sykes & Sabock Challenge Cup

Friday, February 6

University Park, Pa.

All Day

James Madison University

Sykes & Sabock Challenge Cup

2/7/2015 7:10:00 PM | Track & Field

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Highlighted by numerous personal and season bests, the James Madison track & field team finished competition at the Sykes & Sabock Challenge Cup at Penn State on Saturday.

Four athletes – sophomores Annie Johnson, Nia Jones and Abby Duncan and senior Kristen Landry – set new personal records while five others improved or set initial marks in their respective events.

After qualifying for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship meet in the 60-meter dash Friday, Johnson followed on Saturday by qualifying for the meet in the 200-meter dash with a time of 25.03 seconds, finishing 10th overall in the event. The mark beat the ECAC standard by one-thousandth of a second (25.04 seconds). Her previous best time in the event was 25.62 seconds, which was set last year at the George Mason Last Chance Meet. Johnson's new best sits fourth all-time at JMU in the event.

In the triple jump, Jones made a leap of 10.92 meters to finish 15th in the competition. Her previous best in indoor triple jump came last year at the Liberty Quad. Leading the way for JMU in the triple jump on Saturday was sophomore Ebony Owusu-Sampah, who posted a mark of 11.70 meters to finish fifth overall. Owusu-Sampah's mark was her best of the season.

Alsocompeting in the 200-meter dash for the Dukes, Duncan topped her previous best time of 25.85 seconds by posting a mark of 25.83 seconds. Her previous personal best in the event came at last year's Virginia Tech Challenge.

Landry's time of 5:08.09 in the indoor mile topped her previous best by more than three seconds. Her previous best time in the event was 5:11.71, which was posted at the 2012 Virginia Tech Challenge.

Sophomores Tessa Mundell and Carol Strock each ran new events Saturday as both competed in the mile run. Mundell posted a time of 5:01.88, which just missed the ECAC qualifying time of 4:59.01, as she finished 13th in the event. Strock ran the mile in 5:10.82 to finish 33rd overall.

Freshmen Tyrah Burrow, Aereale Scott and Nicole Goff each improved personal bests that had been set earlier in the season, as Burrow ran the 400-meter dash in 57.94 seconds, the 10th fastest mark in JMU history. Scott improved her mark in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.08 seconds, and Goff finished the 3,000-meter run in 10:25.45.

Looking to qualify for the ECAC Championships, seniors Destiny Simmons and Tiel Westbrook and sophomore De'Ana Forbes came up just short in their respective events. Simmons' time of 57.74 seconds in the 400-meter dash missed the qualifying standard of 57.04 seconds while Westbrook's time of 2:14.90 in the 800-meter run missed the ECAC qualifying time of 2:14.44. Forbes missed the 200-meter dash standard by five one-thousandths of a second, finishing in a time of 25.09 seconds. Her mark, however, is sixth all-time at JMU in the 200-meter dash.

The track & field team returns to action with three meets on Feb. 12 and 13, as a portion of the team travels to Annapolis, Maryland, for the Navy Multi-Madness on Feb. 12 before the team competes in two meets on Feb. 13 in the Boston Valentine Invitational and Liberty Quad.