Another Big Personal Best For Asa Francis

Saint Lucia’s Asa Francis and Ghana’s Gifty Oku led the Coppin State Eagles men’s and women’s cross teams at the Bison Invitational, hosted by Howard University at Kenilworth Park this past weekend. The men’s squad finished fourth overall while the women’s team placed fifth in their final tuneup before the conference championships. Francis placed 10th of 25 runners, finishing the 5K in an impressive 15:40.8. That mark was close to two minutes faster than his previous best time over that distance, 17:29.8, and nearly three minutes better than the 18:32.2 he ran as a freshman. Francis was followed by Etiam Torgbenu in 16:10.7, 15th overall. Abdul Razak took third for the Eagles in 17:08.5. Dentry Mortimer (17:23.9) and Saint Lucia’s Jayeed Norbal (18:39.3) rounded out the scorers for Coppin. Amiri Goode also competed and covered the course in 18:58.5. On the women’s side, Oku took 21st overall in 22:22.1, setting a personal record by nearly two full minutes. Halutie Hor took three minutes off her season opening time to finish in 23:50.3. Saint Lucian 400m runner Kimani Alphonse (26:22.6), Kyah La Fortune (26:22.7), and Karima Davenport-White (27:17.0) also competed for the Eagles. Coppin concludes the cross country season at the...