Shalonda Solomon takes the baton from Forazen Glen at the 2007 Penn Relays (© Kirby Lee)
Shalonda Solomon feels good as new. The South Carolina junior battled through a hip injury during the indoor circuit but appears to be rounding into the form that catapulted her to the 2006 NCAA indoor and outdoor 200m titles last season.
Solomon anchored South Carolina to a comfortable heat win in the 4x100m relay in 44.71 in the opening session of the 113th Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field on Thursday (26) to set up a showdown with Auburn senior Kerron Stewart in today’s College Women Championship of America final.
Stewart led Auburn to the day’s fastest clocking at 44.62, on a breezy overcast afternoon before a crowd of 23.996. Stewart, the current world yearly leader in the 200m at 22.60, won the NCAA Indoor 200m title in March after Solomon scratched from the final because of the hip condition.
Last season, Solomon and Stewart finished 1-2 in the 2006 NCAA Outdoor 200m final. Solomon also defeated the Jamaican to win the NCAA Indoor 200m title.
It’s a rivalry that was first spurned in high school when Solomon and Stewart first met competing for Long Beach Poly High and St. Jago, respectively, in the Penn Relays. Solomon, the 2004 World Junior 200m champion, still holds the record for the fastest 400m split of 51.3 by a high school girl in meet history.
Today’s 4x100m final will feature five of the world’s top six in the women’s 200m this season with Stewart (22.60), Simone Facey of Texas A&M (22.77), Virgil Hodge of TCU (22.81), Kelly Ann Baptiste of LSU (22.95) and South Carolina’s Natasha Hastings (23.01).
Day 1 Highlights
Tennessee won the College Women’s Distance Medley Relay for the second time in four years in 11:09.16 with the quartet of Rose-Anne Galligan (3:26.3), Latonya Loche (52.9), Leslie Treherne (2:08.9) and Sarah Bowman (4:41.4).
Bowman won a last-lap battle with Frances Koons of Villanova (11:10.19) with North Carolina finishing a strong third behind with a 4:33.0 anchor by Brie Felnagle.
In the women’s Shot Put, Michelle Carter of Texas, the daughter of national high school record holder Michael Carter, won with a season-best 17.22m.
Other women’s winners on the first day of the three-day meeting included Ashika Charan of Texas A&M in the Long Jump (6.23m), Katie Stripling of Arkansas in the Pole Vault (4.00m), Shanna Dickensen of Tennessee in the Hammer Throw (57.92m), Anna Raynor of North Carolina Wilmington in the Javelin Throw (53.12m).
Kirby Lee for the IAAF
