Long Beach Poly emerges as America's Team at Penn Relays

PHILADELPHIA – Long Beach Poly (Calif.) is known nationally in track and field as Speed City. "America's Team" was a more appropriate nickname in the 117th Penn Relays at Franklin Field on Friday.

The Jackrabbits won the Championship of America girls 400-meter relay in a nation-leading 45.23 seconds. Poly also received gold watches as the top United States girls team in the Championship of America 3,200 and 1,600 relays in 8:59.72 and 3:47.03, respectively.

In the 400 relay, Poly's time by seniors junior Traci Hicks and seniors Carisma Lyday, Melia Cox and anchor Akawkaw Ndipagbor was the fastest in the nation this season and almost a half-second faster than its state-leading season best of 45.70.

It was the third Championship of America title in the 400 relay for Poly, which also won in 1995 and 2003, and moved the Jackrabbits into a tie for third on the all-time Penn Relays list. No other United States school has won the event besides Poly since 1981.

On Friday, Wolmer's Girls and Herbert Morrison, both from Jamaica, finished second and third in 45.86 and 45.91.

"Any time that you win at Penn Relays, it's special because there is nothing like this because you're running for your country. You're not running for Poly," Poly coach Don Norford said.

The win was particularly emotional for Poly after the Jackrabbits failed to finish after a botched hand-off in 2010.

"Every year, it has been drama until we found the perfect combination of people," Ndipagbor said.

Poly was in front from the start after a near-perfect exchange between Lyday and Cox. Ndipagbor was never challenged on the anchor after taking the handoff from Hicks. The USC-bound runner raised both arms in celebration as she crossed the finish line and was nearly leveled by a bear hug by Lyday.

"I didn't know I had won probably until about the 399-meter mark. It was very surreal," Ndipagbor said. "Last year, we weren't focused. I was like `Yeah, we just want to win. There was no purpose behind the running. This year, it was something else. When you have a concrete goal and you seem to accomplish things."

The hardest part for the Jackrabbits was finding a United States flag from the crowd of 38,806. Jamaican fans gave Poly a standing ovation and offered the quartet Jamaican flags on their victory lap before Ndipagbor found a fan with a U.S. flag on the homestretch.

In the 1,600 relay, Poly's team of freshman Adrianna May and seniors Arielle Stevenson, Azia Walke and Ndipagbor avenged two consecutive defeats to Serra-Gardena as the California schools finished fourth and fifth in 3:47.04 and 3:48.49 as the top U.S. team. Jamaican schools Vere Tech (3:37.79), Holmwood Tech (3:40.33) and Edwin Allen (3:40.45) swept the top three spots.

In the 3,200 relay, Poly's team of senior Rebekah Oragwu, Stevenson, freshman Janice Lane and senior Dynasty Gammage ran a nation-leading 8:59.72 to finish second to Jamaica's Edwin Allen (8:39.22).

In other events on Friday, Morristown (N.J.) senior Nick Vena became the first athlete to win the boys shot put for four consecutive years with a nation-leading 72-9¼ to break his own meet record. He surpassed the national leading season mark of 72-7½ by Oregon's Ryan Crouser. 

In the mile, Loyola Blakefield (Towson, Md.) senior Matt Jablonski outleaned Greene (N.Y.) senior Chad Noelle, 4:10.37 and 4:10.38. Delbarton (Morristown, N.J.) senior Morgan Pearson clocked 8:23.34 for the nation's No. 2 time this season.

In Thursday's competition, Tatnall (Wilmington, Del.) junior Haley Pierce beat 2010 Foot Locker cross country champion Aisling Cuffe of Cornwall Central (New Windsor, N.Y.) to win the 3,000, 9:16.35 to 9:19.24, in a race that produced the No. 8 and 10 marks of all time. Pierce was named the individual female high school athlete of the meet.

The Fayetteville-Manlius (N.Y.) girls distance medley relay (1,200, 400, 800, 1,600) of Katie Sischo (3:35.4), Heather Martin (56.7), Courtney Chapman (2:11.0) and Jillian Fanning (4:51.39) set a meet record of 11:34.46 to move into fifth on the all-time high school list.

Neptune (N.J.) junior Ajee Wilson, a World Junior championships qualifier, ran a 2:03.4 in the girls 3,200 relay qualifying for the second fastest split in meet in history.