The trip was short but the results are long-lasting.

The track and field team visited Cornell this past weekend in its last meet before the conference championship. The two biggest names, Rory Quiller and Kim Williams, were at the Penn Relays. Some may think that without these two there would not be much invigorating news, but that was not the case.

Dayna Johnson, who was sidelined for the indoor season with a back injury and hadn’t jumped all season, gobbled up first place in the triple jump. Coach Mike Thompson said that Johnson ‘hadn’t even decided to do that until the Bucknell meet [last week].’

Not only did Johnson get a meet under her belt before the conference championship, she got her personal best by nine inches and qualified for the ECAC, giving Quiller some company at the regional meet.

There were other outstanding female performances in the field as well. The pole vaulters took three out of the top four spots with Katie Wilmer coming in first overall, Carly Gross in third and Kiki Gifft placing fourth. As Johnson was taking the gold in triple jump, Jazelle Mealing placed sixth. Aja Phipps placed sixth in the high jump.

Although the women’s star sprinter and relay teams were not at Cornell, the girls still managed to succeed. In the 100-meter dash, Keisha Short placed second and was less than half of a second in front of teammate Krystelle Patrice, who took sixth. In the 200-meter dash, Jasmine Hinson placed second.

The men’s side was led by sprinter Jimmy Massar, who has recently received some second place finishes, and who placed first this weekend in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.87. This is a good sign considering he will be attempting to repeat his third-place finish at the indoor meet in the 200-meter dash. Also on the track was Adam Goldberg, who placed fourth in the 110-hurdles, good enough to qualify for the IC4A meet.

The field athletes also had top finishes. Kevin Hall stepped up his game and placed first in the shot put for the first time this season. Without Quiller at the meet, a first place finisher in the pole vault wasn’t likely, but Kris Yelverton managed to score a tie for first in the event. These two first place finishes had coach Thompson enthused.

‘I feel that the team is coming together at the right time,’ he said. ‘We had a good meet this past weekend and we tend to do well at the conference meet.’

Justin Halleck placed third in the shot put and third in the hammer, where Hall placed fifth.

The team travels to UMBC this weekend for the AE championships. Thompson opted out of making a prediction but thought that the team should be anywhere from third to sixth.