FREDERICK, Md.--The Hood College track club finished an impressive third out of 104 relay teams at Sunday's Frederick Marathon.

The team of Danielle Sgro (first leg, 6.5 miles), Steve Delaney (second leg, 6.9 miles), April Penn (third leg, 3.6 miles) and Faraz Shoai (anchor leg, 9.2 miles) covered the course in a combined 2 hours, 56 minutes, 27 seconds. They were the second place finishers in the co-ed division which featured 71 teams.

"I was very pleased with the performance of all four student-athletes," Hood head cross country and track coach Brent Ayer said. "All are either freshmen or sophomores and have little or no experience racing beyond five miles.

"Danielle opened nicely, averaging a little over 7:20 per mile. If she runs with patience on Saturday [at the Goucher Invitational], she has a shot at Kelly Buriak?s school record at 10,000," Ayer said. "Steve Delaney was just rolling. He passed through five miles almost a full minute under his personal best and tacked on two more miles. This is the best I've seen him run at a distance above 1,500 meters and should do a world of good for his confidence level leading up to next year's cross country season.

"April was steady as always and arrived early enough to catch Faraz still running around in his sweatpants," Ayer added. "Faraz legged out the last 9.2 miles at a 6:20 mile pace. This was a nice first attempt at racing a longer distance."

Hood College senior Robert Mitchell finished the full 26.2 mile distance to complete his third marathon. He was over the school record of 3:38:57 he set last fall in the Philadelphia Marathon.

In related news, on the same day, Hood cross country runner Adrienne Cornett competed in and finished the Lower Delaware Autism Foundation Half-Marathon in Lewes, Del. She completed the course in 2 hours, 19 minutes. It was her first half-marathon.

"I encourage our distance runners to get out into the community and to race some of the longer distances," Ayer said. "I view this as 'sport for life' and experiencing some of these events gives the athletes something they can take with them when they leave Hood College."