The awards keep coming for the University of Pennsylvania women's track and field program after an historic indoor season, as Director of Track and Field Steve Dolan and Assistant Coach Porscha Dobson both earned Mid-Atlantic Regional awards, announced Monday by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Dolan was named Mid-Atlantic Region Women's Coach of the Year, while Dobson earned the same honor as an assistant.
Both Coach Dolan and Coach Dobson Coach led Penn women's track and field program to its first Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championship since 1996, totaling a new program record with 137 points. The Quakers won six individual championships at Ivy Heps, their most since 1988, including event wins for the first time in program history in the 3,000m, the 500m, the high jump, and the weight throw. The women's team posted 36 new program top-10 performances over the course of the indoor season, including new school records in the 400m, 5,000m, high jump, pole vault, weight throw, and 4x400m relay. The women currently rank second in the Mid-Atlantic Region as a team, matching the program's highest mark.
Coach Dobson has led a resurgence in the Penn women's sprint squad, with arguably the most talented grouping of Quakers in school history under her tutelage. Dobson has oversaw a breakout season for rookie Uchechi Nwogwugwu, who won the program's first Ivy League championship in the 500m, while earlier in the season Nwogwugwu set the new program record in the 400m with a time of 54.25. This season saw the Quakers earn 10 new top-10 program marks in the 60m, 60m hurdles, 200m, 400m and 500m. Four of Penn's all-time top-10 marks in the 200m have come this season, led by sophomore Cecil Ene, while three of Penn's top-10 in the 400m have also come this season. Coach Dobson has taken the individual success of her athletes and transferred into team success in the relays, with three of Penn's all-time top-five placements in the 4x400m relay coming this season, including a school record mark of 3:42.02 from Candace Taylor, Caroline O'Neil, Ene and Nwogwugwu. The Penn women earned their first Ivy League Indoor Heptagonal Championship since 1996 this season, earning a program record 137 points in the process, due in large part to Dobson's squad that saw a 500m championship, and second place marks in the 60m hurdles, the 60m, 400m, and 4x400m relay. Her event groups totaled 58 points during Ivy Heps.
The regional honor is the first in the career for Coach Dobson, while Coach Dolan has now won three Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year honors in his time at Penn: one for cross country, one for indoor track and field and one for outdoor track and field.
