Penn Relays Live Blog: Unionville's Smith 3d in girls' 3,000 meters
6:23 pm - Courtney Smith of Unionville finished in 9:38.40 to capture third place in the girls' 3,000 meter race. Sophie Chase of Lake Braddock (Va.) finished first in 9:35.52. It was her second-straight title. - Matt Breen
5:36 p.m. - Villanova captured its 11th women's distance medley relay title as the Wildcats finished in 10:58.84. Anchor leg Emily Lipari came around strong on the last turn to seal the race. She was joined by Angel Piccirillo, Michaela Wilkins and Nicky Akande. Kentucky finished six seconds later for second place. - Matt Breen
5:40 pm - Cardinal O'Hara used a late charge to erase Bonner-Prendergast's early lead as the Lions won the Catholic League girls' 4x400 in 4:00.63. By the time anchor Melissa Sharkey crossed the finish line, she was all alone. Sharkey was joined by Marissa Cicione, Alex Patrick, and Becky Chominski.
"We really trust each other," said Sharkey, who ran the anchor leg. "We've run this race a few times, so we know what we're doing and everyone was running great."
Swenson won the Public League race with ease as the Lions finished in 3:51.47, nearly 12 seconds ahead of second-place Paul Robeson. The Swenson foursome was Markeeta Thomas, Amy Hicks, Tichina Rhodes and Imani Harris-Quillen. -Matt Breen and Austin Odenbrett
5:10 pm –Jamila Branch's strong anchor leg helped Central Bucks West capture the Suburban One National 4x400 race as the Bucks set the top Suburban One time. C.B. West finished in 3:50.12 and Branch was joined by Lizanne Furst, Courtney Taylor and Kelsey Horst.
Cheltenham cruised to the American division title as the Panthers finished in 3:55.80. Maya Alston started the race and was joined by Kayla Coley, Katelyn Jackson and Hanna Gilliam. -Matt Breen
3:30 pm -As the winds swirled at field-level, Council Rock South's Benninghoff completed a vault of 12 feet, one and a half inches, to win the bronze medal in the girls' high school pole vault competition.
Despite her finish, Benninghoff conceded that she had expected more from herself.
"I'm really happy I had some good competition against me, and I felt really confident." she said. "I'm definitely disappointed but I did one height better than last year, so I'm trying to find a positive in it." - Austin Odenbrett
3:15 pm -Junior Laura Loht recorded Penn State's fourth consecutive victory in the Penn Relays college women's javelin Thursday, winning with a throw of 154 feet, 8 inches. Loht, who made the longest throw of the competition on her first attempt, picked up her second Penn Relays watch, having won the high school javelin in 2010 while at Indian Valley High in Lewistown, Pa. - Joe Juliano
1:58 pm - Texas A&M, Oregon and LSU came within an eyeblink of each other in their qualifying heats in the college women's 4x100-meter relay. The Aggies, who are seeking a record fifth consecutive victory in the event, led all teams with a time of 44.33 seconds over the Franklin Field track on a sunny, breezy afternoon. The Ducks were clocked in 44.34 and the Tigers in 44.36. Two other schools -- UTech (44.73) and Kentucky (44.87) -- broke the 45-second mark. The eight fastest times qualified for Friday's Championship of America race. - Joe Juliano
1:00 pm - Swenson finished the girls' 4x100 small schools race in 48.05 seconds to finish in sixth place and qualify for Friday's final. Cheltenham finished just two-hundereths of a second behind Swenson for seventh place. It also qualified for the final, set to start Friday at 2:15. - Matt Breen
11:58 am -The women's distance medley relay championship was expected to be a rematch of the thrilling duel that Michigan and Villanova fought at last month's NCAA indoor championships but the Wolverines, who won that race over the Wildcats, have chosen not to run Thursday. They will compete on Friday in the women's 4x1500 relay against the likes of 'Nova, Georgetown and defending champion Oregon. - Joe Juliano
11:44 am -Cardinal O'Hara's 4x800 girls' relay team edged St. Basil by less than a second to finish second in the small school race. The Lions finished in 9 minutes, 28.60 seconds. Holy Names (Albany, NY.) won the race in 9:20.11. - Matt Breen
11:30 am -Villanova's Faith Dismuke finished in fifth place in the first event of the Penn Relays on Thursday morning at Franklin Field.
The sophomore finished the 400 meter hurdles in 59.31 seconds. Penn State's Evonne Britton finished in 58.56 seconds for third and Abington-product Leah Nugent of Virginia Tech finished in 59.61 seconds for eighth. Samantha Ellito of Johnson C. Smith captured the race in 57.64 seconds. - Matt Breen