(Philadelphia, Pa.) CU freshman Monica Lawrence made the most of her invitation to participate at the Penn Relays. Going into the meet, Lawrence looked to improve her NAIA qualifying time in the 5,000 meter race walk from provision to automatic status.

After walking 29:19.04 in March, Monica needed to finish faster than 28:15.0 for the NAIA. If she did that she would also better the standard for the USATF Jr. National Championships in June.

An aggressive and even paced effort for the twelve and one-half laps brought Lawrence to the finish line in eighth place with a time of 27:36.77, earning her the CU freshman record automatic qualifying marks for both NAIA and USATF Jr. Nationals.