Maya Drayton of Cherry Hill East opened her senior year at Georgetown with a win at the VMI Team Challenge in Lexington, Va.
Drayton easily won the 400-meter dash in 56.61, outracing the field by more than 1 ½ seconds. Freshman teammate Jadah Fitzgerald was second in 58.35.
That ranks her No. 17 in the early going in NCAA Division 1 and No. 1 in the Big East Conference, with DePaul’s Jade Pope from Pennsauken No. 2 at 57.35.
Drayton was a Big East medalist in the 400 this past spring in Storrs, Ct., with a 4th-place finish in a personal-best 54.46. Her indoor PR is 54.78 from her 3rd-place finish at Big East at SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio, in March 2000. She ranks No. 7 in Georgetown history in the 400 outdoors and No. 14 outdoors.
Drayton also teamed up with Fitzgerald, Renee Newton and Rebecca Ochan to win the 1,600-meter relay in 3:50.59.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 