PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, April 25–27 — In a span of 80 minutes, the HSRs in the girls 4 x 400 and 4 x 800 were toppled on a remarkable Friday evening at the Penn Relays.
In the 4 x 400, Bullis (Potomac, Maryland) had already lowered the 20-year-old prep standard on March 30, clocking 3:35.23. In Philly, the quartet was looking to end Jamaican domination on the event, with the last American win having come back in ’08. And while Bullis couldn’t quite get past the team from Hydel (3:34.78), its quartet did slice a bit more off its High School Record, finishing 2nd in 3:35.17 with a lineup of Tatum Lynn (55.6), Sydney Sutton (52.5), Kennedy Brown (53.46) and Morgan Rothwell (53.60).
“It’s rare that someone breaks a national record and we still look a little bit disappointed,” Rothwell said. “But that just shows how hungry we are.”
There was no disappointment for Union Catholic (Scotch Plains, New Jersey) in the 4 x 800, where Jimmiea King (2:11.76), Peyton Hollis (2:11.57), Sophia Thompson (2:10.02) and Paige Sheppard (2:07.86) went wire to wire en route to an 8:41.20 win. That took down the High School Record of 8:43.12, set by Roosevelt (Greenbelt, Maryland) at Penn’s ’08 edition.
On the boys’ side, Quincy Wilson of Bullis pulled heroic anchor duty in both the prelims and final. In the Saturday morning heats, Alexander Lambert went down in traffic on the first leg, leaving the rest of the team to play catch-up from 11th place. Wilson got the baton in 6th, more than 3 seconds off the lead. Running much of his leg in lane 2, the 16-year-old soph somehow managed to catch the leaders with a monster 44.37 split, finishing off a 3:14.84 win.
“The 44 wasn’t about me, it was about my teammates and bringing them together,” Wilson said. “I knew I wanted to see us go to the next round, so I knew I had to give it everything I got.”
Six hours later, more bad luck struck the team, this time at the second exchange, where a pile-up sent third leg Cameron Horner to the ground. He scrambled to make up ground, but Wilson still faced another 3-plus-second deficit at the final handoff. Again he went to work, running wide with his trademark head back and wide arm swing, though this time he couldn’t catch the top two teams, both Jamaican. Still, Wilson produced a sensational…
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