STATESBORO, Ga. – The Mercer women's track and field team kicked off the 2021 season with a bang as Carlandra Jones set a school record in the 400-meter dash and Cherrish Wright tied her own program record in the 100-meter dash.
The day's competition started with the long jump in which Chidimma Uwaomah jumped a new personal best of 4.67 meters on her first try to give her a sixth-place finish. The Bears continued their strong showing with a silver medal in the 4x100-meter relay with Samaiya O'dneal, Wright, Ceylani Rembert and Lauryn Dancy clocking in at 46.89 seconds, good enough for the ninth-fastest time in program history. The second Mercer squad of Hannah Cooper, Kennedi Weston-Shields, Jones and Uwaomah came home fourth (49.09).
Jones wowed the crowd in the 400-meter dash, setting a school record of 55.78 seconds, knocking half a second off Weston-Shields' record from the 2019 SoCon Championships. Davis helped the Bears' take the top two spots on the podium, following Jones with a time of 57.73 seconds, a new personal best, which placed her sixth in the Mercer record book.
Ashley McMahon raced Georgia Southern's Hannah Wise to a photo finish in the 5,000-meter run, as Wise beat McMahon by a mere 1/100th of a second. Wise crossed the line in 18:26.83 with McMahon nearly earning the win with a time of 18:26.84. Marina Van Sickle put together a solid third-place effort (19:01.66) to help Mercer take two of the three podium spots.
In the Orange & Black's fifth event of the day, the 100-meter dash, Wright tied her own program record, crossing the line in 11.87 seconds. Rembert (12.61) and Uwaomah (12.73) finished fifth and sixth respectively, and Cooper narrowly missed out on a top-10 finish in her first outdoor meet with a time of 13.15 seconds.
Bella Rhone nearly earned a spot on the podium in the 800-meter run, finishing just 0.18 seconds behind third-place Isabel Ptacek of Georgia Southern. Rhone ran her first collegiate outdoor 800-meter event in 2:26.26.
Wright's second win of the day came in the 200-meter dash, the day's second-to-last event. Her time of 24.31 seconds to place her name in the record book in the event for the fifth time. She owns the program record of 24.01 seconds, which she set at the 2019 SoCon Championships.
The Bears ended the afternoon with a second-place effort in the 4x400-meter relay. Mercer's quartet of Davis, Weston-Shields, O'dneal and Jones ran the race in 3:54.11.
Georgia Southern (216 points) claimed the team victory with Jacksonville State (143) and Mercer (107) finishing second and third, respectively.