Courtesy: Jason Watson/UVa Media Relations Kristina Chapman

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - The Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia kicked off today with five Cavaliers participating in the first day of events.

Kristina Chapman ran this morning in the 400m-hurdle event. She finished in eighth place setting a new personal record with her finish of 1:00.83. Unfortunately, Chapman just missed the regional qualifying mark by one-hundredth of a second.

Alexa Manning and Meghan Briggs participated in the shot put and javelin events, respectively. Manning threw 12.42m in the shot put, while Briggs threw the javelin 42.82m.

Lauretta Dezubay and Ryan Collins ran in the 5000m championships today, as well. Dezubay’s performance today at the Relays set a new personal record, as she placed eighth with her time of 16:43.17. Dezubay improved on her performance at the ACC championships last weekend, where she placed seventh with a time of 17:03.97. With her performance today at the Penn Relays, Dezubay qualified for the NCAA regional meet by almost ten seconds.

Collins also broke his previous personal record with his finishing time of 14:12.85, improving on his previous PR by twenty seconds. Collins improved upon his time from last weekend’s ACC championships significantly; however, his performance is just under a second above the regional qualifying time of 14:12.00.

“For Kristina and Ryan be so close to the regional mark less than a week after battling at the ACC Championships is a great effort,” head coach Randy Bungard said. “To be so close definitely stings, but they will both ran very well and will have another opportunity to run and achieve the standard within the next three weeks.”

Tomorrow’s events will begin with the men’s high jump at 10 am.