April 28, 2006
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - It seems as if the only time the Purdue women compete in the shuttle hurdle relay, it's at the Penn Relays. And when they do, they usually break their own school record.
The team of Lindsay Singleton, LaShauna Harris, Ranay Harvey and Leah Kincaid lowered the varsity record for a second straight year, recording a mark of 56.73 seconds to place third. Purdue finished behind LSU (54.24) and Georgia Tech (54.63).
Head coach Jack Warner also was happy with his women's 4x1500 team of Kaleena Cappel, Laura Farley, Brooke Woodruff and Corrie Whisner. This relay is believed to have a set a new varsity record with a time of 18:23.02; however, since this race isn't regularly run, records have not been kept up to date.
Warner believes the last time Purdue competed in a 4x1500 relay was during the Fred Wilt-era, which lasted from 1978 to 1989.
Other than Friday's relays, Warner noted there weren't as many bright spots as he had hoped for, but recognizes that it's tough for a young roster to adjust to the Penn Relays' atmosphere.
"Everybody did OK, but thought a lot of kids could have done better," said Warner. "We have a lot of new faces here compared to what we brought last year, and our newcomers might have felt lost."
Saturday is Purdue's final day of competition as the Boilermakers compete in four, perhaps five, events. As of late Friday night, Warner was trying to get an answer as to whether or not Rickey Pinkney had qualified for the finals of the 110-meter hurdles. Pinkney placed 10th during Friday prelims with a time of 14.14.
Also scheduled to compete Saturday are the women's 4x800 team, Andrew Rademacher in the pole vault championship, Ben Harpenau in the hammer throw and John Paul Schwingendorf in the javelin.