UAA's Vanessa Aniteye has used her strong freshman season in outdoor track last spring as a springboard to summer success.
The sophomore-to-be on Sunday ran the lead-off leg for the German team that seized the silver medal in the 4×400-meter relay at the 2017 European Under-20 Track & Field Championships in Grosseto, Italy.
Aniteye, 19, clocked 54.2 seconds on her circuit to position the Germans in second place at the first half-off of the baton. They clocked 3:33:08 and were edged by Ukraine, which captured gold in 3:32.82.
Aniteye earlier this summer lowered her personal-best in the open 400 to 53.69 in the German Under-23 Championships. She owns the UAA record in the indoor 400 at 55.89 and is No. 2 all-time outdoors in 54.88, all of which give her a strong shot at Mary Pearce's outdoor school record of 53.56 (2007).
Aniteye last spring was named the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's Freshman of the Year after winning the 400 at the conference championships and also anchoring the winning 4×100-meter team and 4×400-meter runner-up. She qualified for the NCAA Division II championships in both the 400 and 4×400 relay.