2010 Penn Relays--Spiders Compete

Andrew Benford places 3rd in the Olympic Development 3K Steeple

Assistant Coach, Jon Molz places 4th in the Olympic Development 3K Steeple

Meaghan McGovern places 9th in the College Hammer

Monica Howard places 26th in the College Discus

Andrew Benford and Jon Molz in the stadium

before the Olympic Development 3K Steeple

Andrew Benford, who is redshirting this outdoor season for the Spiders, opened his 2010 track season with a 3rd place finish in the Olympic Development 3K steeplechase this evening at the Penn Relays. He was followed by Spider Assistant Track & Field Coach, Jon Molz who used a great kick to secure 4th place behind Benford. Benford’s time of 8:58.00 was a solid 3rd while Molz improved upon his 9:08.08 from last week at Princeton.

WATCH the RACE on FloTrack

Benford will race a couple more track meets this season with his sights set on the USATF National Championships standard.

Andrew Benford at the 2008 A-10 Championships

Andrew Benford QUOTE on placing 3rd (8:58.00) in the Olympic Development 3K Steeple at Penn Relays: "I felt really good, especially for my first race in 5 months and first steeple race since NCAA Regional’s last May. I was really conservative early and felt very strong throughout the race. Slattery and Dutille blasted out and covered the first 400M in something around 62 seconds while the rest of us worked on getting a rhythm. With 1K to go I made a good move and started putting some distance between everyone else. I was catching second place but just ran out of room. Again, I feel good about this as a starting point and look forward to running a lot faster in a few weeks.”

Spider Assistant Coach Jon Molz QUOTE on placing 4th (9:05.10) in the Olympic Development 3K Steeple at Penn Relays: “I felt good and got near my personal best of 9:04. Over the last barrier I had a really good kick to move into 4th place right at the finish (see FloTrack video). The atmosphere here at the Penn Relays is amazing. It’s a fun and inspiring place to race.”

The Spiders, Meaghan McGovern placed 9th in the College Hammer Throw with a best of 50.93M and Monica Howard placed 26th in the College Discus Throw…After 2 fouls Howard threw 35.48M on her final throw.