Lauren Philbrook & Brendan Christian impress at Penn Relays in College Championship 10,000

Seniors Lauren Philbrook and Brendan Christian posted personal bests and top six performances in the 10,000-meter events at the 115th Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia on April 23rd.

Running in the Collegiate Championship event Philbrook claimed fifth place in 35.16.84 and Christian took sixth in the men's Collegiate Championship with a time of 30:14.93. Both performances are NCAA Division III automatic qualifying marks.

Philbrook's time ranks her number two all-time in the 10,000 at Williams behind Caroline Cretti (National Champion - track). Christian's time also put him second all-time on the Eph 10,000 list behind Neal Holtschulte (National Champion - XC).

The personal bests achieved by Philbrook and Christian were even more impressive considering that each clipped more than a minute and a half off their previous personal best. Philbrook shaved 99 seconds off and Christian lowered his best effort by 93 seconds, which is almost 4 seconds per 400!

Philbrook was the first Division III finisher and beat the next Division III athlete by 45 seconds. Christian was the second Division III finisher and five seconds back of the first.

Philbrook's time works out to 5:41 per mile. Christian's time averages out at 4:52 per mile and marks his second entry onto a Williams top ten list after his 5k performance from 12 days ago landed him 10th all-time.

Junior Jeff Perlis competed in the 5,000-meter Collegiate Championship, but was forced out of the race before finishing due to injury.

Lauren Philbrook '09	Brendan Christian '09