In the biggest Penn Athletics event of the entire year, one Penn athlete stood out.
Despite all of the hype surrounding the expert and pinnacle high school athletes at the Penn Relays, not to say athletes from different, large colleges, junior Nia Akins ruled her events to earn big recognition. At the end of the weekend, she was named the Women’s College Relay Athlete of the Meet.
Akins is the primary Penn athlete to ever win the award and the fourth Ivy League athlete to earn the accomplishment.
On Thursday, Penn’s crew, led with the aid of Akins, beat out 13 other elite collegiate groups to win the College Women’s Distance Medley Championship of America Invitational. This changed into every other first, as no Ivy League women’s crew had ever won a Championship of America event.
The Quakers dominated the sector within the distance medley, beating out the subsequent closest team, Notre Dame, through more than three seconds. After Akins jumped in advance on the hole leg, the Quakers had been able to hold the lead throughout the race and at ease the victory.
Akins ran again on Saturday within the Championship of America 4×800-meter relay, contributing a blistering 2:02.33 split to guide Penn’s crew to a 5th-location end inside the occasion.
Akins has been piling up accolades all season, which include being named the Most Outstanding Indoor Track Performer of the Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championships and completing in the second location inside the 800 on the NCAA Championships, a race she very nearly gained. Akins also holds severa application statistics, together with the fastest person instances inside the 800 and 1000 in conjunction with a crew document in the 4×800.
Penn athletes now and again take an again seat at the Penn Relays to all of the touring athletes who convey alongside severa lovers. Akins made it acknowledged this yr that the runners at Penn shouldn’t be disregarded.
In what becomes a historical event at the hundred and twenty-fifth strolling of the Penn Relays, Akins earned mythical fame with her overall performance.
