Kelly finishes first in 5000m at Yellow Jacket Invitational

With a first-place finish from junior Amy Kelly and several Panthers placing in the top 10, Pitt track and field ran past the competition in Friday’s Yellow Jacket Invitational at Georgia Tech’s George C. Griffin Track in Atlanta.

Kelly’s win — her top finish since last April — came in the 5000m race, in which she recorded a personal best time of 17:19.88.

Both the men’s 4×100 and women’s 4×400 relays finished in second place behind Georgia in this weekend’s meet.

The women’s team — featuring juniors Quadaisha Newkirk, Lalia Ismail and Morgan Harvey and senior Desiree Garland — finished with a time of 3:43.94, just one second behind first-place Georgia.

The men’s quartet of first-year Jabari Michael-Khensu, junior Jamaree Murray and seniors Joshua McDonald and Chris Spadaro posted a time of 41.56, almost two seconds behind Georgia’s team.

In women’s javelin, sophomore Sydney Alderman finished second place as well with a throw of 40.13m, the best mark of her career.

In the steeplechase, Kelly Hayes and Matt McGoey finished in second and third place, respectively. Both athletes recorded career-best times, with Hayes finishing with a time of 7.02.46 and McGoey with a time of 6.05.06.

Three Panthers — Brylan Slay in the men’s 800m, Anja Weiler in the women’s 800m and Robert Quinby in the men’s javelin — finished in fourth place at the meet. Quinby had a throw of 53.59m, and Slay and Weiler recorded times of 1:56.44 and 2:15.21, respectively.

Michael-Khensu sprinted into fifth place in the men’s 100m dash with a time of 10.86.

The next test for the Panthers will come next week, as the team will stay in Pittsburgh for the Carnegie Mellon University Invitational at Gesling Stadium March 24 and 25.