Looking forward to Saturday’s Penn State Invitational, Director of Track and Field Ron Helmer said last week he only planned to send a small group to the event.

That small group, however, produced a big result: 13 top-three finishes, including two from relay teams and six from underclassmen.

Once again, the Hoyas dominated the middle-distance races, with the women’s distance medley team of freshmen Renee Tomlin and arcie Sobrinski, senior Ashley Mondie and redshirt sophomore elissa Grelli edging Penn State by just over one second to take first place.

The women’s 4×400-meter relay was just as close, with Georgetown crossing the finish line third, just .06 seconds behind winner St. Augustine’s. Georgetown’s B team finished fourth in the event.

Junior Ashley Hubbard won the 800m race in 2:12.06, beating her nearest competitor, Pittsburgh junior Selena Sappleton, by more than four seconds. Sophomore Jayne Penn was not far behind, finishing fourth at 2:18.08.

Georgetown also won the men’s 800m as freshman Danny Harris snuck past senior Stanley Lagrenade by .03 second to finish at 1:53.83. Two seconds later, freshman Kelvin Hill crossed the line in fourth.

In the women’s mile, Georgetown’s five runners all finished in the top 13, led by Grelli in third, with Tomlin and Sobrinski finishing fifth and sixth, respectively. Freshman Dan Leyh took third in the men’s mile, finishing in 4:21.91.

Junior Alex Baptiste and sophomore Buky Bamigboye finished second and fifth in the women’s 500m while senior Nichole Torpey, sophomore Nana Hanson-Hall and freshman Abigail Johnson ran third, fourth and sixth in the women’s 400m dash. Baptiste’s 1:15.39 was a personal record. Freshman Laura Gregory took fourth in the women’s 3000m.

In the men’s 1000m, senior Rasheed Thompson and freshman Dan Gerber came in first and second. Gerber’s 2:27.90 was just seven hundredths of a second behind Thompson.

Sprints continued to be a weakness for the entire team as freshmen Sarah Wernik and senior Ashley Mondie failed to advance past the preliminary round of the 60m dash, although both came back in the 200m to take ninth and 12th place, respectively.

The men’s sprinters posted more promising results as sophomore Kenny Mitchell finished third in the 60m dash with a time of 6.82, a new Georgetown record. Fellow sophomore Terrell Gissendanner also finished third in the 60m hurdles. Mitchell, however, was later disqualified in the 200m.

On the field, freshman thrower Tanore Barrow continued to improve, throwing 12.98m in shot put for sixth place and qualifying for the Big East Championship. Men’s shot putters sophomore Shawn Frederick and freshman Tom McCoubrey finished seventh and ninth out of 11 competitors.

Three men’s runners also competed at the Terrapin Invitational in Landover, Md. Graduate student Fleet Hower finished second in the men’s mile with a time of 4:07.97 and freshmen Alex Mason and Mike Krisch came in sixth and seventh, respectively.

The Hoyas return to Happy Valley, Pa., next weekend for the Penn State National Open and also plan to send athletes to the Terrier Classic in Boston, Mass.