PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - The George Mason track and field teams traveled to Philadelphia for their third away meet of the season, competing at the Penn Classic hosted by the University of Pennsylvania at The Ott Center. Opening Day of the meet featured a full slate of competition, including all field events. The Patriots also competed in the 60m dash and the 60m hurdles.
Sophomore Shania Staats delivered the first event win of the day for the Green and Gold in the women's long jump. Staats recorded a personal-best mark of 6.03m which currently ranks third in the Atlantic 10 season standings. She broke the previous Penn Classic meet record of 5.93m. Her performance also earned her a spot at ninth on George Mason's all-time indoor program record list. Freshman Laila Thomas made her event debut in the long jump for the Patriots, posting a mark of 5.49m.
After earning Atlantic 10 Co-Rookie of the Week honors last week, freshman Kellen La Roche continued his impressive collegiate campaign by capturing the first event win of his career. La Roche cleared 2.00m in the high jump to secure the victory.
Kennedy Drish earned her third win of the indoor season with a clutch performance in the pole vault. Drish cleared a personal-best height of 4.26m, successfully clearing the bar on her third and final attempt. Her dominance in the event continues to separate her from the field, as she extended her lead and remains atop the Atlantic 10 season rankings. Drish also remains second on George Mason's all-time list, trailing only Madissa Marshall's program record of 4.30m set in 2014. With the performance, she moved up to 25th on the NCAA Indoor Qualifying List. Teammate Alina Florou Dimitriadou placed third in the meet, clearing a season-best height of 4.06m. Both surpassed the previous Penn Classic meet record of 3.96m.
In the shot put, two Patriots recorded personal-best performances, improving upon marks previously set at the Hokie Invitational last month. William Michael Baker posted a throw of 15.08m, surpassing his previous best of 15.00m and remaining ninth on the program's all-time list. Sophomore Amela Male also set a personal record with a mark of 11.94m, improving on her previous best of 11.55m.
In the 60m hurdles, Davian Burke recorded the second-fastest time in the preliminaries with an 8.06 to qualify for the final race. Burke went on to place third with a time of 7.96, just one-hundredth of a second shy of his season and personal best of 7.95.
The Patriots return to action for Day Two of the Penn Classic on Saturday, February 7 with events starting at 12:15 p.m. A complete meet schedule and live results are available online, and the meet will be streamed on ESPN+.
