Four School Records Fall in Gopher Indoor Track Opener

CARLISLE, Pa. - The Goucher College indoor track and field program set four school records as it competed at the DuCharme Invitational hosted by Dickinson College on Saturday.   Both the men's and women's teams finished in third place out of five schools.

Freshman Kiri Alston-Buck (Havre de Grace, Md. / Havre de Grace) took first place in the women's high jump and set a school record with a 1.50-meter jump.  She outdistanced Emily Gourley of Messiah who was second at 1.40 meters.

Freshman Carter Hinton-Ayodele (Bowie, Md. / Bowie) set the school record in the triple jump on the first jump and won the event with a leap of 11.29 meters.

Senior Joel Gladney (Perry Hall, Md. / Perry Hall) set a school record in the shot put with a 12.30 meter toss which came on his second throw of the day.  Gladney finished third overall.

Sophomore Ayo Ajiborode (Parkville, Md./Parkville) posted a school-record time of 8.61 seconds in the men's 55-meter hurdle prelims.  He finished fifth in the finals with an 8.91 second effort.

Sophomore Tee Bakare (Silver Spring, Md./Archbishop Carroll) and Neli La Court Ruiz (York, Pa./Northeastern) each won their heat in the women's 55-meter dash to qualify for the final.  Bakare took the win in the final with a 7.51-second effort, while Ruiz placed fifth at 7.82.

Bakare also took first place in the women's 200 with a time of 26.90 seconds.  She took the lead just shy of halfway at the 75-meter mark and defeated Glory Odeh of Lehman by 0.47 seconds.

Sophomore Sean Whitfield (Beltsville, Md./DeMatha Catholic) took first place in the 400 winning heat 2 with a time of 54 seconds flat.  Freshman Shawn Pelote (Upper Marlboro, Md. / Bishop McNamara) placed fifth, coming in in 56.31 seconds.

In the men's 4x200 relay, Ajibronde got off to a strong start in the first leg, building a lead that the Gophers would not relinquish as they posted a time of 1:37.70.  Pelote, sophomore Mustafa Honeyblue (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis) and Whitfield completed the relay.

Freshman Sophie O'Connor (Shorewood, Wisc./Shorewood) was fifth in the women's 400 with a time of 1:11.08.  In the women's 55-meter hurdles Jaelan Gabriel (Houston, Texas/Dulles) and freshman Alice-Michelle Kelsey-Toomer (Meadville, Pa./Meadville) each reached the finals, with Gabriel posting a 10.83 and Kelsey-Toomer an 11.09 in the final.

Hinton-Ayodele placed third in the women's long jump with a career-best 5.12-meter jump.  Sophomore Kya Taylor (Dinwiddie, Va./Dinwiddie), competing for the first time since her junior year of high school due to injuries, hit a career-best 9.72-meter toss in the women's shot put to finish fourth.

Whitfield and Ajiborode were fourth and fifth in the men's 400, with Whitfield posting a 24.34 and Ajiborode a 24.41.

Freshman Reese Finnigan (Dallas, Texas / Grapevine) was fifth in the 3K with a time of 12:37.62.

Goucher returns to action on Friday, January 14 when it travels to compete in the Lebanon Valley Invitational.