After running the slowest time ever by an AU team in the four-by-mile relay at last year's prestigious Penn Relays, Brian McCabe, Brendan Fennell, Conor Lanz and Steve Hallinan entered this year's competition looking for redemption.
"We were really disappointed last year," said Lanz, a junior. "It was embarassing."
Although they finished seventh on Saturday afternoon, their combined time of 16:34:00 was good for a new school record, .35 seconds faster than the one set in 2003.
While the four underclassmen combined to run over 30 seconds faster than the time they recorded last year, the team is not content with the result and look to improve upon it next year.
"We all ran good, but none of us ran great," said Lanz. "Each one of us did something that kept us from having a better time. If we fix that next year, we'll do a lot better."
The Penn Relays, a prestigious competition featuring some of the best high school, college and professional runners, started off on a disappointing note for the AU team. The women's distance medley team was disqualified after senior Zaia Wharton dropped the baton in the opening seconds of the race.
Although the team's time was not counted, the unofficial time of 11:56 would have broken the school record.
"It shows a lot of spirit that they kept running," said assistant coach Sean O'Brien. "They easily could have packed it in but they ran hard anyway."
Also on Friday, junior Awit Yohannes ran the fifth fastest time in AU history in the 5,000 meters, finishing 14th overall. It was a personal best for Yohannes, who will compete in the 10,000 meters next week at the Patriot League Championships.
"It wasn't exactly the result I wanted, but there is a lot that I can learn from the experience," Yohannes said.
On Saturday, AU's men's 4 x 800 relay team ran a 7:38.75, finishing 13th overall. Freshman Carlos Jamieson, sophomore Kris Cruz and juniors Alex Caudana and Dustin Emrani all expect to compete in the same event next year at the Penn Relays and hope to build on this year's performance.
"Although it didn't go as well as we hoped, there were some positives," O'Brien said. "Alex Caudana ran a really good race. He set a personal record for himself in the 800."
While the Penn Relays could have gone better for AU's team, it was a successful day for some of the team's coaches. O'Brien, an AU graduate who now competes professionally, ran a 4:03.49 to win the Olympic Development mile. Head coach Matt Centrowitz also had a big event, as he saw both his son and daughter finish first.
