100-year-old Penn Relays competitor draws ovation

Among the thousands of athletes who competed at the 122nd Penn Relays, none received the attention and adulation of 100-year-old Ida Keeling, all 4-feet, 6-inches of her.

The crowd of 44,469 was on its feet Saturday during all 1 minute and 17.33 seconds that Keeling ran - or more accurately, power-walked - the 100 meters. All her fellow competitors stood just beyond the finish to watch her after they completed the race.

And when it was over, the New York resident did a few push-ups and leg lifts to prove she is a fitness devotee.

"I do go to the gym," she said in a Facebook post by Penn. "That's one of my main places because exercise is one of the greatest medicines you could ever have. I don't want to let nobody drag me down. I just keep going. Your strength is in you, and if you've got a will, then you'll find a way."

And just a reminder - Keeling will celebrate her 101st birthday on May 15.

Fedrick Dacres of the University of West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, set a carnival record in the men's discus, throwing 213 feet, 10 inches. NCAA champion Sam Mattis of Penn, the American college record holder, finished third at 196-7. . . . Rutgers fifth-year senior Gabrielle Farquharson, a graduate of Williamstown High School, won the college women's 100 meters in a school-record 11.36 seconds. . . . Tennessee's Jake Blankenship, trying to become the first pole vaulter ever to win four straight championships at Penn, did not clear a height in Saturday's competition, missing all three attempts at 16-63/4.