Caity Phillips, Brooke Patterson and Beth Heimann set personal bests

Philadelphia, Penn. — The Kentucky women?s 4 x 1,500-meter relay team smashed the school record Friday afternoon at the historic Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Penn. The squad, which came in fifth in the event with their time of 17:43.34, also saw three of the four relay members set personal-best split times in the race.

Brooke Patterson led the way with the fastest first split among the 14 competing teams, a personal best clip of 4:20.9. Candace Leep followed with a split time of 4:32.0, and Caitlin Phillips and Beth Heimann closed out the race with personal-best legs of 4:23.7 and 4:26.7, respectively. The record time was more than 15 seconds faster than the old mark of 17:58.41 set in 1989, which was the sixth-oldest school record at UK.

Stanford took home first place in the event with a time of 17:26.88.

UK?s Jeff Chakouian also returned to action Friday the relays, taking fifth place in the shot put with a toss of 58-06.00. Ohio State?s Dan Taylor won the competition with a mark of 66-07.75.

The Cats return to action tomorrow at the relays with the men?s and women?s 4 x 800-meter relays.