Historic Franklin Field becomes the epicenter of track this weekend, as it has every year since 1895.
The 121st running of the Penn Relay Carnival kicks off tomorrow morning at historic Franklin Field, on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. Nearly 600 schools from around the country and all over North America will descend on Philadelphia this weekend, including the traditional large contingent from Jamaica. The meet mingles high school, college, and professional competition, including the famous USA vs. the World relays on Saturday, which will be broadcast live on NBCSN from 12:30 to 3:00. For the first time this year, the meet will also be streamed by FloTrack in its entirety!
As usual, North Carolina has a small crowd of athletes competing in Philly. Check out the events where our boys and girls will be participating below, and schedule your time so that you can watch and support them while they compete!
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Girls 400 Hurdles (Thursday, 10:20 AM)
Anna Cockrell (Providence Day) returns after finishing 10th last year, and you can bet she won't be happy with that result this time around. She currently ranks 22nd in the country in the 300 Hurdles and 4th in the nation in the 400 Hurdles (with a time that is over a second faster than her Penn Relays time from last spring). A sub-60 time would put her in contention for both the gold watch given to individual winners at this meet and the top time in the nation this season.
Girls 4x800 (Thursday, 10:30 AM)
Carrboro is the only North Carolina team that made the cut for the 4x800 this year - only 32 small schools and 32 large schools get in. The Jaguars ran 9:32 back in mid-March, which is now outside the top 50 in the nation. Last year, it took sub-9:19 to advance to the Championship of America (the top 12 schools regardless of size), and that kind of pace should pull Carrboro to a fast time. Will it be fast enough to reclaim the state lead from Cary?
Girls Mile (Thursday, 6:05 PM)
Malia Ellington (Community School of Davidson) is back - she finished 4th in this race last year - and she has been showing signs of progress after working through a plateau for part of this year. It's quite likely that she has just been training hard in anticipation of her championship meets later this season, and that has taken a toll on her legs during meets. If so, and if she lets off the hammer a little bit this week, she could be primed to challenge her PR of 4:51.16, set here last year. On a side note, how many athletes get to go to Arcadia, Penn Relays, and both adidas Grand Prix Dream Miles during their careers?!
Boys Mile (Friday, 6:05 PM)
Philip Hall (South View) is already into the Dream Mile in June (as is Ellington) by virtue of his Raleigh Relays win. Now, he wants to work on his time. 15 North Carolina males have run under 4:10 during their high school careers, and this would be an excellent place for Hall to become the 16th. If he can get under 4:08 he will make the top 7 in state history, and his eventual goal could be to go under 4:06 and move into the top 3. That's a tall order for this point in the season for a guy whose all-time PR is 4:13.03, but everyone has to have stars to shoot for. Step one, getting under 4:10, is definitely in range if he runs well. This race tends to be very hotly contested with a lot of contact, and so Hall will also need to run a smart race.
Boys 3000 (Friday, 6:10 PM)
Two of the state's breakout stars from this spring, West Johnston's Kyle Christ and Mount Tabor's Kenny Kneisel, will be in the field for this race. Christ ran 9:05.10 for the 3200 at Arcadia two weekends ago, which (incredibly) ranks him 39th in the country. Kneisel hasn't run a long race since his 9:09 at Raleigh Relays the last weekend in March, although he did add some speed work by winning the 1600 and 800 at the CPC Championship this week. With a crowded field (25 runners), it will be all these two can do to stay near the front, but that should result in some fast times. Both runners could measure themselves by Patrick Sheehan's 8:29 in last year's Penn Relays.
Boys Pole Vault (Saturday, 10:00 AM)
Tristian Shaver (Ledford) vaulted to national prominence this winter (pun intended, thank you very much) when he elevated his PR from 14 feet to 16 feet (OK, that's enough puns, I promise). He will be joined by Ian West (Fike), who cleared 16' 1" last summer on the street in Winston-Salem, but has battled some setbacks this school year. The conditions in Franklin Field are often not particularly good for big vaults - swirling winds are common, and the weather is often cool and rainy in comparison to what we have this time of year. If things fall into place, though, it would be great to see both of these guys get over 16 feet again.
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