The 119th Penn Relays got going this morning with the college 400-meter hurdles and high school girls' 4x800-meter relays and The Armory region made news all day long.
But the biggest news of all came from the Benjamin Cardozo girls' distance medley relay, which won the Championship of America in 11:45.69, more than 10 seconds ahead of runnerup Germantown Friends of Philadelphia.
Denise Branch led off the relay with a 3:36.9 carry and handed off in third place behind Germantown and Northern Highlands (N.J.). But that's when Cardozo's Deajah Stevens — who is South Carolina-bound in the fall — took over. She ran down Northern Highlands' Emma Sullivan with a 53.2 400-meter split — the fastest overall on the day. Once she handed off to Shaniqua Kirkpatrick, who split 2:21.8 on her 800-meter leg, the victory was all but assured.
That's because Cardozo had Georgetown-bound Sabrina Southerland on the anchor leg. Southerland — who ran 2:03.59 over 800 meters indoors and split under 4:50 at nationals in the DMR — went out crazy fast and split 66.5 on her first lap. She was never challenged as she finished with a 4:53.8 1,600-meter split and secured Cardozo's first-ever Penn Relays victory. It was also the first time since 2002 that a PSAL team won any Championship of America as Boys & Girls pulled it off a DMR title that year.
It was also the first time a girls' squad from Queens won at Penn. The last such boys' team to do it was 1967.
Nine hours earlier — in this first event of the day — Bay Shore (N.Y.) alum Jessica Gelibert of Coastal Carolina placed fourth in the 400-meter hurdles in 58.84. Johnson C. Smith's Samantha Elliott won the event in 57.64.
The 4x800-meter relay consists of two small school and two large school sections with the 12 fastest teams qualifying to Friday's final. Plenty of Armory regulars earned spotw in the final, including Strath Haven (Pa.), Holy Names (N.Y.), Freehold Township (N.J.), Columbia (N.J.) and Pennsbury (Pa.).
Mamaroneck (N.Y.) also qualified for the final a year after losing Anima Banks to graduation. The team of Leonie Rauls, Shari Rauls, Lauren Chapey and Katie DeVore ran 9:15.32 — the second-fastest time of the day behind only Edwin Allen of Jamaica (9:05.41).
If you were looking forward to seeing Kadecia Baird of Medgar Evers run in the 4x100- and 4x400-meter relays, then you left the track disappointed. Baird did not run in either relay as Evers ran 49.39 and 3:56.98 without her.
Columbia (N.J.) not only qualified for the 4x800-meter relay final but it also qualified for the 4x400-meter relay final, running 3:42.75 to win the final open-class race of the day. Only Holmwood Tech's 3:42.35 was faster.
Columbia star Olivia Baker sat behind St. Jago's anchor until the final turn before she unleashed her gear-shift and dropped Jago by five seconds in the final 175 meters. Baker's 54.0 split was startling given how fresh she appeared at the end of the leg. If she runs that strong in the final, she could give her team a chance to win.
Long Beach Poly (Calif.), and Woodbridge (Va.) will join Columbia and five Jamaican teams in the Championship of America. Woodbridge was the final team to qualify in 3:47.37.
Edwin Allen ran 45.41 to lead all qualifiers in the 4x100-meter relay as it took 47.28 to make the Championship. The only U.S. teams to make the final were Long Beach Poly (Calif.) and Lincoln-Way East (Ill.).
New Rochelle (N.Y.) and Winslow (N.J.) both qualified for the large school 4x100-meter relay final while Swenson (Pa.) and Cheltenham (Pa.) qualified for the small schools 4x100-meter relay final.
The girls' mile was a great race with a tight finish. Reagan Anderson of Tatnall (Del.) looked like she was the winner with 25 meters to go — but Jamie Phelan of St. Mary's (Ont.) stole the show with a late drive to edge Anderson, 4:50.60 to 4:50.66.
Sophie Chase of Lake Braddock led most of the way to win the 3,000-meter run in 9:35.52. Newburgh's Gianna Frontera was fifth in 9:45.49, her best time ever.
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