Penn Relays | Live Updates & Schedule of Events
Men's Top Performances | Women's Top Performances

PHILADELPHIA – The Orange travels to the world's largest and oldest relay carnival when it competes in the 116th annual Penn Relays beginning Thursday, April 22. Syracuse will send 10 track and six field student-athletes to the meet which draws more fans to Philadelphia than to any other track and field meet in the world outside of the Olympics and World Championships.

The Penn Relays, which are held at Franklin Field on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, will have athletes representing more than 60 countries. During the 35 hours, more than 425 races will be run, which is an average of one race every five minutes. Three-day attendance figures for The Relays have averaged more than 104,000 each year since 1996.

Competition is set to begin on Thursday at 10 a.m. with the women's 400-meter hurdles. ESPN2 will televise the USA vs. The World races from 8-10 p.m. on Saturday, April 24.

Four competitors will make their second consecutive trip to The Relays, including seniors Uhunoma Osazuwa, Lorraine Hill and Melissa Romero, in addition to graduate student Bernard Bush. In last year's high jump, Osazuwa cleared the bar of 1.70m for an ECAC-eligible distance for third place, while Romero tallied a fifth-place jump of 1.67m for fifth place. Osazuwa will also be the lone Orange representative in the long jump. Hill has earned two ECAC-qualifying marks in the javelin this season and looks to build on last year's fourth place ECAC heave of 42.49m at the Penn Relays. Bush, who has earned IC4A marks in both events he has competed in this season, took third in the Penn Relays last season with a leap of 7.45.

Also competing in the field events are senior Annabelle Pellerin and sophomore Ieva Staponkute. Pellerin joins Osazuwa and Romero in the long jump and looks to qualify for NCAA Regionals after posting a BIG EAST and ECAC-eligible mark of 1.70m earlier this season. Staponkute will attempt to move onto postseason competition in the triple jump.

On the track side, senior Curtis Bixler looks to build on his BIG EAST qualifying time of 9:18.94 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, while graduate student Nana Sang-Bender will compete in the 5,000m run. Sang-Bender is coming off a fourth place performance at the Larry Ellis Invite, where she ran a NCAA Regional time of 16:44.35. The Orange is also sending one relay team from both the men's and women's teams. Senior Maegan Krifchin, junior Katie Hursey and sophomores Lauren Penney and Heather Stephens will run the 4x1500m in the Championship of America. Graduate student Jeff Scull, senior Brad Miller and Dan Busby and sophomore Tito Medrano will represent the men's side in the Championship of America 4xMile.

The schedule for SU's events in the Penn Relays is as follows:

Thursday
10 a.m. High Jump (Osazuwa, Pellerin, Romero)
3:15 p.m. Javelin (Hill)
4 p.m. Long Jump (Osazuwa)
7:45 p.m. 3,000m Steeplechase (Bixler)
8:55 p.m. 5,000m (Sang Bender)

Friday
11 a.m. Triple Jump – Staponkute
1:30 p.m. Women's 4x1500m (Hursey, Penney, Stephens, Krifchin)
3:30 p.m. Long Jump (Bush)

Saturday
9 a.m. Triple Jump (Bush)
1 p.m. Men's 4xMile (Busby, Scull, Miller, Medrano)