WALNUT, CALIFORNIA, April 17–20 — Fittingly, a baton event elicited the most interest in this year’s women’s division of the Mt. SAC Relays, a meet at which, in spite of its name, quartets passing sticks do not always make the biggest headlines.
In the 4 x 100, a team of Edrick Floréal-trained dashers consisting of Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke, Jamaican Lanae-Tava Thomas and Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred lined up against a Bobby Kersee-coached foursome of Keni Harrison, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Jenna Prandini, and Morolake Akinosun.
The draw of this matchup was McLaughlin-Levrone on the second leg. Last summer, a troublesome knee led to her withdrawal from the World Championships after she had won the U.S. 400 title in a world leading time, and this would be her first outing of ’24.
Oregon would start in 3, with Formula Kersee in 4, Floréal’s Team International in 5, Ivory Coast in 6 and USC, Stanford and BYU filling 7, 8 and 9.
At the gun, Asher-Smith blasted out of the blocks and quickly made up the stagger on Ivory Coast’s Dinedye Denis, distancing herself from the field.
Adeleke took a clean stick from Asher-Smith and charged down the back straight, while McLaughlin-Levrone had work to do after taking Harrison’s pass. Adeleke’s pass to Thomas was clean, but McLaughlin-Levrone’s exchange with Prandini was not, and Prandini had to work the curve.
Alfred got a huge lead from Thomas and had no worries heading to the line in 42.03. When Akinosun got the baton from Prandini she was 10 meters down and that’s how it remained. Formula Kersee would finish in 42.93, with Ivory Coast 3rd in 43.17.
The Floréal-coached relayists minus Thomas would later tangle in the 200, with Alfred taking the victory in 22.58, followed by Adeleke (22.61) and Asher-Smith (22.80).
Other running highlights included Finland’s Nathalie Blomqvist taking the 5000 in a respectable 14:59.70.
Former Baylor Bear Maggie Montoya led the field through 1600 in 4:50.4 before Blomqvist stepped up the pace and, after a series of 71-second laps, built up an 8-second lead, crossing 3000 in 9:01.23.
At 4K, Blomqvist extended her advantage to 21 seconds, and it would grow to nearly 27 once she crossed the line in a PR 14:59.70 over Montoya (15:26.66).
In the field, Washington frosh Hana Moll took control of the pole vault after…
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