Wildcats Place Third in Penn Relay's 4X800 Race

Competition continues at Penn Relay Carnival.

April 23, 1998

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. ----- The Villanova women put in an inspired performance on Thursday, April 24, 1998, in their debut performance at the 104th Annual Penn Relay Carnival, running to a third-place finish in the 4x800-meter relay.

The Wildcats, significantly depleted due to injuries to All-Americans Carrie Tollefson and Kristine Jost, finished behind champion Georgetown (8:36.16) and Florida (8:38.78). The Wildcats clocked in at 8:41.53 behind the strong running of Lony'e Johnson, Kristen Nicolini, Carmen Douma and Tamieka Grizzle. Johnson, Douma, and Grizzle are all only sophomores, while Nicolini is a junior transfer who had been limited in her first two seasons at Auburn University due to injury.

In her first Penn Relays appearance, Johnson responded with style, running a personal-best split of 2:12.9 in her opening leg. Nicolini took over from there, posting a time of 2:13.9.

At that point, Douma took over the race, taking the Wildcats from ninth place into third with a sizzling run of 2:06.8. That marked the fastest 800 meters of her career, and was also the quickest split of any competitor in the race.

Grizzle took the baton from Douma and put in an exceptional performance as well, running 2:08.1 to lock up the third-place position for the Wildcats.

Villanova will continue to compete in the Carnival on Friday, April 24, with the men competing in the distance medley relay at 12:15 p.m., followed by the women in the 4x1500-meter relay at 1:20 p.m. Other events featuring Wildcats include the men's discus throw at 11:30 a.m., the women's 100m hurdles qualifying rounds at 2:50 p.m. and the men's 4x400-meter relay qualifying heats at 3:50 p.m.

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