TOWSON, Maryland - Saturday's (April 6) Towson Invitational proved very favorable to the University of Maryland Eastern Shore outdoor track teams. The men took sixth place out of 19 with 48 total points and the women took eighth of 19 with 36 points.

Five athletes reached Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) qualifying standards. Naomi English (Kensington, Maryland) earned a mark of 5.64 meters in the long jump, good for second place. Fellow jumper Attinuke Shittu (Germantown, Maryland) qualified for the triple jump with a mark of 11.84 meters, finishing third. In men's field, Tamunoibi Dabipi (Salisbury, Maryland) placed fifth in the discus at 44.95 meters to punch his ticket to Greensboro.

On the track, Janoi Brown (Randallstown, Maryland) and Neus Quinonero (Valencia, Spain) also qualified in new events. Brown earned a time of 48.26 seconds in the 400 dash for his first qualification. Quinonero is going for a third event - this time in the 800 meter with an 2:12.26 effort. Brown's time also earned him IC4A qualification and Quinonero's time won the event at Towson.

Another IC4A qualifier and winner was Chisom Onukwugha (New Carrollton, Maryland). He won the preliminary and finals in the 110 meter hurdles, with his time of 14.78 seconds in the prelims surpassing the IC4A mark. Right behind Onukwugha was Chauncy Chewning (Richmond, Virginia). His time of 15.55 and 15.30 seconds, respectively, place him second in the hurdles.

Additional top performers for the Hawks include Edwin Kipruto (Iten, Kenya) and his second place time of 10:03.16 in the steeplechase, and the performances of the women's 4x100 and the men's 4x400 relay teams. The 4x100 squad completed their race in 48.91 seconds to finish fourth while the 4x400 team raced in 3:24.11 to also place fourth.

Maryland Eastern Shore will return to Delmarva for the Eastern Shore Challenge. The one-day meet will be hosted by Salisbury University on April 13th.