PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania: Kingston College (KC) secured their third consecutive High School Boys’ 4×400 Championship of America title, prevailing in a tense competition against Excelsior High at the 128th Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field on Saturday.
This victory marks KC as the fifth team in Penn Relays history to achieve a three-peat in the event, continuing Jamaican dominance in the discipline that now includes 14 straight wins for teams from the island nation. The last American team to claim victory in the boys’ 4×400 relay was Long Beach Poly from Long Beach, California, back in 2007.
Marcinho Rose, with a split time of 46.12 on the anchor leg, propelled KC to victory in 3:11.86. However, a prolonged delay occurred before presenting the Championship ‘wheel’ to KC due to a protest; nevertheless, the outcome remained unaltered. Antonio Forbes, Amal Glasgow, and Roshawn Lee completed the KC team.
Excelsior High, which were strongly favoured for a double victory following their first-ever win in the 4x100m Championship of America earlier, secured second place with a time of 3:12.94.
Bullis School from Maryland clinched third place despite a stumble during the exchange from the Bulldogs’ second-leg runner, Colin Abrams, to the third-leg runner, Cameron Horner. This mishap took Bullis out of contention in what was shaping up to be a memorable showdown. However, 16-year-old Quincy Wilson delivered a remarkable performance with a blistering 44.69 split, propelling Bullis to a time of 3:13.10.
It was the second sub-45 split from Wilson, as he delivered a 44.37 split in the preliminary round, which now stands as the fastest 400 split by a high schooler in Penn Relays history.
The victory represents Jamaica’s sweep of all three Championship of America titles. In addition to Excelsior’s triumph in the High School Boys’ 4×100 Championship of America and KC’s win in the High School Boys’ 4×400 Championship of America, Jamaica College secured the High School Boys’ 4×800 Championship of America.
