With roughly 30,000 spectators jammed into the lower bowl of the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field for the Penn Relays, the Bullis boys’ and girls’ 4×400-meter relay teams stepped to the staggered starting lines with one goal in mind: Beat the Jamaicans.
For years, Jamaican high schools routinely have swept the podium positions, but Bullis has closed that gap in recent years — specifically in the 4×400.
The Bulldogs’ ascent continued Friday: The girls’ relay team of juniors Mirai Bernard, Myla Greene, Lauren Leath and Sage Hinton beat out three of the five Jamaican teams in the field to capture a second consecutive third-place finish in the event.
On Saturday afternoon, in front of a predominantly pro-Jamaica crowd, the boys’ relay team — Luke Schroeder, Aidan McDuffie, Myles Pendarvis and Oliver Bridges — outpaced five of the six Jamaican schools for a program-best second-place finish.
“We’ve established that we are one of the best programs in America, but we are no longer satisfied with that,” Bullis Coach Joe Lee said. “We want to be the best — period — and this week we took another major step towards accomplishing that goal. I couldn’t be more proud.”
The girls finished in 3 minutes 40.88 seconds, the fastest time in the nation, while the boys’ time of 3:11.90 is second best.
“Even though we have never competed in front of such a large crowd, we drew strength from each other and we knew we were going to fight for each other on the track,” said Hinton, the girls’ relay anchor. “We have big goals for this outdoor season, and we expect to improve upon that time.”
On Thursday, Bullis’s Trinity Franklin won the shot put with a distance of 48 feet 2.5 inches. Alexandria City’s Wisdom Williams, the All-Met indoor track athlete of the year, was second at 44-11¾.
Bullis figures to be the front-runner when its boys host the Interstate Athletic Conference championships and the girls head to Holton-Arms for the Independent School League meet. Both are set for May 13 and 14.
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Photo: Bullis’s girls 4×400-meter relay team — Mirai Bernard, Myla Greene, Lauren Leath and Sage Hinton — finished with the fastest American time (3:40:88) on Friday at the Penn Relays. (John Nepolitan)
