The 400-meter tandem of Roseline Addo and Jennifer Howard continued their stellar junior campaigns as each broke the school record for the 400-meter dash at the Florida Relays.
This past weekend in Gainesville, Fla. the duo broke the 23-year old school record of 55.75 seconds formerly held by Connie Franklin from 1978.
Even though both broke the record, Addo’s time of 55.08 better Howard’s 55.69, making Addo now the owner of the school records in both the indoor (55.87) and outdoor 400-meter dashes.
“She (Addo) ran a really good race,” Track and Field Coach Matt High said. “She didn’t go out as fast the first 200-meters as she should have, but there were two Olympians in front of her that ended up running 52 (seconds).”
High was equally pleased with Howard, who was tentative about competing in the Invitational 400-meter dash at Florida, according to High.
“I was very pleased with her,” High said. “She really wasn’t mentally prepared. She wasn’t sure she belonged in that race.
“She ran a really good race, and she learned that she can be up there against the big competition,” he said.
Addo and Howard will be competing at the Duke Invitational in Durham, N.C. April 7.
Addo will be competing in the 400-meter dash while Howard will be dropping down to work on her speed in the 100 and 200-meter dashes.
Senior Evan Hawkins competed in the 200 and 400-meter dashes at the Florida Relays running 21.93 and 47.40, respectively.
“Evan didn’t have that good a meet,” High said. “We all have bad races, I told him I’d rather him have a bad race at the beginning of the year than the end.”
Even though Hawkins did not have his best day, High was very pleased with the effort showed by the three-time conference champion at 400-meters.
“He should be running low 46 (seconds),” High said. “He gave 110 percent. It was just one of those days where you can’t get things going.”
Hawkins will also drop down to the 100 and 200-meter dashes at the Duke Invitational to work on his speed, which is what the three 400-meter specialists need to get to the next level, High said.
“We need to do more speed work,” he said. “We haven’t incorporated much speed work yet.”
The Lady Bucs’ Lauren Campbell also competed well at the Florida Relays, winning the Collegiate 1,500-meter run in a time of 4 minutes, 36.88 seconds.
“She had a really good race,” High said. “She had it from the beginning.”
“She ran smart and put herself in the race,” he said.
Campbell, who was the 2000 Indoor Conference Champion at 800-meters, set a personal record in the 1,500-meter run, but will have to choose between the 1,500 and 800-meter runs at the Southern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
“It’s too hard (to run both) in the conference (meet),” High said. “Her race might be the 1500, maybe not this year, but next year.”
The Buccaneer Track and Field squad will be competing with a limited number of athletes at the Duke Invitational this weekend.
But the entire squad will be competing April 13-14 at either the Sea Ray Relays at the University of Tennessee or in a meet at the University of North Carolina-Asheville.

Author