Skip to content
Sports
Link copied to clipboard

Penn Relays: South Jersey's Jessica Woodard wins college women's shot put

The former Cherokee High standout now competes for Oklahoma, but this felt like a home meet for her.

University of Oklahoma shotputter Jessica Woodard competing at the 123rd Penn Relays.
University of Oklahoma shotputter Jessica Woodard competing at the 123rd Penn Relays.Read more(Clem Murray/Staff Photographer)

Though she was wearing the red of Oklahoma, Jessica Woodard felt right at home Thursday at the Penn Relays, with friends and family from South Jersey watching her every throw in the college women's shot put.

"It's awesome just to have so many people out here supporting me," Woodard, a Cherokee High School graduate, said after winning the competition with a throw of 55 feet, 11 inches.

"I had my immediate family and then I had my high school coaches and some old high school teammates and obviously our O.U. throwers that came over, and people I competed against that just came up to me and were like, 'Wow you did great,' people that I didn't even expect to see here."

Woodard, a redshirt junior, finished fifth in the shot at last month's NCAA indoor championships but had gotten off to a slow start in the outdoor season. She said she had been "working on a lot of things" in practice, and put a little pressure on herself to perform Thursday in her home region.

It all paid off on her third throw, which traveled more than 21/2 feet longer than the effort of the runner-up, Alyssa Robinson of Penn State.

"This was the meet where I was like, 'I need to do it, it's going to be a breakthrough meet,' " she said. "And with that throw I said, 'I'm going to do this.' Then it all came together. I think obviously there's still work to be done, there's always work to be done, but I'm definitely on the right track."

Woodard, who last competed at Penn two years ago, will come back Friday and compete in the discus championship.

Also in the field

Rougui Sow, a junior from France competing for South Carolina, put in double duty less than one hour apart on Thursday. She won the long jump with a leap of 20-81/2 and ran the leadoff leg for the Gamecocks' 4x100-meter relay team that qualified in 45.23 seconds.

Ithaca College senior Katherine Pitman, the defending NCAA Division III champion in the pole vault, captured her specialty with a effort of 13-51/4, defeating Meagan Gray of Oklahoma on fewer misses.

Senior Kelly Yanucil of Mount St. Mary's took the javelin title for the second straight year, throwing 169-9.

Thursday night racing

Providence's Brianna Ilarda took the women's steeplechase in 9:57.22.

Gina Sereno of Michigan won the women's 3,000 meters by more than 10 seconds, clocking 9:14.22.

In the 5,000-meter races, Brogan McDougall of Physi-Kult Kingston captured the women's competition in 16:06.75, and Jacob Thompson of Kentucky took the men's section in 13:52.93.