Photo by: Jackson Polin
The high school boys and girls 4x4 has to be the most coveted event of the entire weekend at Penn Relays, as it's always the last event of the entire meet. Every school in PA has the option to enter a team to run a 4x100m and a 4x400m, and with teams coming from all around the U.S. and even other countries such as Jamaica, the Championship of America 4x400m may be hardest final to make at Penn. Only 9 total squads qualify for the final in each gender, and with 41 prelims of 12-15 teams per heat, there is a lot of room for error. On the boys' side of things, it usually takes somewhere around 3:14 or faster to just qualify for the COA final, and on the girls' side, the cutoff usually lands somewhere in the ballpark of 3:45 or faster.
Boys' teams that can make COA:
We believe there are 4 teams in PA that have a chance to make the Championship of America final in the boys 4x400m relay. The first team that comes to mind has to be the only PA team to make the final last year: Downingtown West. The quartet returns 3 of the 4 from the relay last year and has run some dangerous times this year on the indoor circuit, ultimately winning the PTFCA Indoor State Championship.
The 2nd and 3rd teams, we believe, have a shot get to go head to head with each other in the Inter-Ac prelim: Episcopal Academy and Haverford School for Boys. This prelim only features 6 teams, so there won't be as much chaos at the start. Additionally, every team gets to down start instead of a waterfall, which could be very helpful to both teams and may push them to run fast times.
The final team has to be Upper Darby - they have already run 3:17 this year and might have the most dangerous anchor in the entire state. Josh Sharp will definitely be tested all weekend, with him slated to anchor on both the 4x4 and 4x8 for his school, but if one person can handle that workload, it is him, holding open PRs of 47 seconds over 400m and 1:50 over 800m. Could we see a 45-second and sub-1:50 split from Josh over the weekend?
Girls' teams that can make COA:
We believe that there may only be one team on the girls' side of things that is capable of a COA qual, and that's none other than the squad from Downingtown West. The quartet ran 3:50.30 indoors, which is good enough for PA #7 all-time and also brought home a state title over the event.
Could we see both the boys and girls teams from Downingtown West in the COA Final? How fast will Josh Sharp and Abaas Hunter Split on the anchor for Upper Darby and Episcopal Academy? Will we see a 3:14 or faster from any of the boys' teams? Will we see a 3:45 or faster from the girls of West? There's only one way to find out!
Photo by: Jackson Polin
The high school boys and girls 4x4 has to be the most coveted event of the entire weekend at Penn Relays, as it's always the last event of the entire meet. Every school in PA has the option to enter a team to run a 4x100m and a 4x400m, and with teams coming from all around the U.S. and even other countries such as Jamaica, the Championship of America 4x400m may be hardest final to make at Penn. Only 9 total squads qualify for the final in each gender, and with 41 prelims of 12-15 teams per heat, there is a lot of room for error. On the boys' side of things, it usually takes somewhere around 3:14 or faster to just qualify for the COA final, and on the girls' side, the cutoff usually lands somewhere in the ballpark of 3:45 or faster.
Boys' teams that can make COA: