Men's Track and Field | 4/25/2015 9:50:00 PM
PHILADELPHIA – Jeremy Dorsey and the rest of Coppin State's 4 x100-meter relay team had one goal when it arrived at venerable Franklin Field on the University of Pennsylvania campus to compete in the 121st edition of the Penn Relays: Advance to a Saturday race.
While it would have been nice to run in the prestigious Championship of America race, the Eagles were plenty satisfied with participating in the IC4A race on national television. The Eagles didn't disappoint.
Running in front of 49,103 fans, Coppin State's ultra quick quartet of Dorsey,
Shane Green,
Kester Chase and
Haysean Cowie-Clarke finished fourth overall in its race in a time of 41.29 seconds. Coppin State finished behind Navy (41.04), Wisconsin (41.06) and Syracuse (41.14). The Eagles were ahead of Liberty (41.34), Pennsylvania (41.59) and Cornell (41.86).
"The time wasn't what we wanted, but we executed a pretty good race," Dorsey said. "It felt good to make it back to run on Saturday because it's the biggest day where the crowd has the most energy. Running in front of one of the largest and most energetic crowds in the country was the best part of the entire weekend experience."
For Coppin State, it was a solid tune-up in advance of next weekend's Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) championship meet at North Carolina A&T. They believe with some minor technical adjustments, they will improve upon their season best mark of 40.99, which they accomplished at the Hampton Relays on April 11.
Hopefully for the Eagles, the weather is much better in Greensboro. The weather wasn't ideal at the Penn Relays as it was chilly and overcast for much of the three days. On Friday, the Eagles ran 41.81 in finishing fourth in their heat.
"The racing conditions were decent," Dorsey said. "It always seems to be cold though, but the environment makes you run hard and not think about the weather as much."
Coppin State's 4 x 400-meter relay team of
Devin James,
Fabian Hayles,
Anster Charles and
Alaric Coker ran 3:18.07 in finishing third in its heat on Friday. The Eagles season best with a different foursome is 3:11.77, which was established last weekend at Morgan State.
In an individual event, Green was 11th in the triple jump (14.66 meters/48 feet, 1.25 inches).
