Competing against some of the nation's finest collegiate hammer throwers, Liberty junior Jon Hart placed fifth in the event, highlighting the Flames' final day of action at the 113th Penn Relays, Saturday afternoon at Philadelphia's Franklin Field. 

Hart (Wyomissing, Pa.) unleashed a best throw of 203-8 to edge out Radford's Jeremiah Spence by six inches for fifth place. It was the fifth meet this season where Hart has cracked the 200-foot barrier. The event champion was Kibwe Johnson of Division II Ashland University, who reached 235-10. Nick Owens of North Carolina and Auburn's duo of Cory Martin and Jake Dunkleberger, currently the top three athletes on the Division I performance list, finished second through fourth. 

The Lady Flames earned a fifth-place finish of their own Saturday, in the ECAC section of the 4 x 200 meter relay final. The Liberty quartet of Andrea Beckles (So., Lynchburg, Va.), Charlene Hibbert (Jr., Mississauga, Ontario), Tra' Screen (So., Lynchburg, Va.) and Arlene Zelinskas (Sr., Dayton, Ohio) clocked a 1:40.10. Connecticut won the race by more than a second, in a time of 1:36.14. Liberty had run the second-best time in school history, a 1:39.06, Friday afternoon, to qualify for the final. 

Josh McDougal (Jr., Peru, N.Y.) will round out Liberty's weekend of competition at 12:31 a.m. Eastern time, Monday morning, when he competes against a field of elite collegiate and post-collegiate runners in the Kim McDonald Memorial 10,000 meters at Stanford's Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational. 

The remainder of the Flames and Lady Flames will prepare for the team's final home meet of the season, the Liberty Twilight Qualifier. The event is set to begin at 3 p.m., Thursday afternoon at the Matthes-Hopkins Track Complex.