2025 Penn Relays, Day 2, watching a hectic day of track and field, by Orin Konheim
As promised, today was a significantly more packed event. But the question abounds: Where is the best seat in the stadium?
The answer seems to be nowhere and everywhere.
If you sit at the northeastern corner by the 33rd street entrance of the stadium, you’ll be able to see the finish line for the 4 X 4 and mile races. You might also know the efficiency of the athletes lined up like rows of cattle before their races. It’s always insightful to see how in-the-zone the athletes are before their race, which you get here.
On the opposite end (the southwestern corner) is the finishing line for the 400-meter hurdles, 1500, 5K, and 100-meter hurdles. Along that western flank is where a lot of the collegiate athletes gather. The prestigious University of Washington and Villanova squads are just taking in the events, so there’s a sense of seeing the events like you’re among the stars.
According to media relations spokesman Kyle Gerganious, the seats are priced differently. While they do end in different locations, the most expensive seats are where the prestigious Championship of America races have their finish lines.
Ironically, the best view of the landscape is along the southern flank. Climb high enough, and you are completely sheltered from the heat with a gorgeous view of the Philly skyline. On the Southern flank, there are primarily high school contingents. You might find the kind camped in an infield at an ordinary track meet.
There, I visited a casual friend of mine, West Springfield coach Chris Pelligrini. Ironically, one of his assistants began his coaching career at my high school (Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia) before being poached by West Springfield. Chris attended college locally and started coaching at his alma mater after graduating. He’s now one of the elder statesmen here: This is his 23rd Penn Relays appearance as a coach.
I was expecting a casual catch-up, but Coach Pelligrini got into the action and commented on the relays below in a way that riled up his fellow coaches and athletes.
“One, I really want them to love the sport, and two, because they might start to recognize some of their own things in their training,” he explained.
Although Pelligrini’s team frequently produces championship-caliber 4 X 8 teams and loads up his relays to the brink, this wasn’t his year on the boys’ side. No one qualified for a final, so the boys’ side went home. Pelligrini had even booked unused hotel rooms for the event on the contingency that his boys might have qualified for the 4 X 8 final. I would have loved to have taken it as someone who slept in a boisterous part of Philadelphia. The Jesuit prep school of Rockhurst in Kansas City, Missouri, surprised by taking the title, and their interview is attached.
Approximately 1,700 people, most of whom are volunteers, student athletes, or interns, are needed to put on the Penn Relays.
They have all sorts of interesting assignments, including a pair of sports management majors who do laundry for the UPenn teams!
“For me, it’s like a reunion,” Sophia Li said alongside her lunchmate Paige Cassidy. Sophia has been working the Penn relays for over twenty years, and this year, she is on the presentations team (they’re the ones who give the shiny golf watches).
“Love of track and field, and we want to make sure the athletes get the help they need, and we want to see the athletes at their best,” said Norma Jones, who is an official.
Judging her patois, Jones is Caribbean and representative of so many of the islanders I alluded to yesterday. What I didn’t notice was that so many Jamaican fans love to cheer for everyone and all events.
Saint Elizabeth Technical School had its own cheering section in the back, but one of the members, Morgan Lawrence, said, “If the school is from Jamaica, then we’re cheering for them. Lawrence was nicknamed “So So Bun” when he competed at the Penn Relays in 1980. Most Jamaican cheering sections’ people were Jamaican ex-pats who used this event to reunite with their countrymen and women.
This is a gathering spot for Jamaican spectators and a prime recruitment spot for Jamaican runners who have their Jamaican championship season a month before the relays.
Regarding the races, the premier action happened relatively early in the day. This might depend on your definition of a premier event, but if the distance medley relay is your cup of tea, that was held at 2 pm.
In the collegiate women’s event, 5th seed Clemson surprised early on by hanging in the top 2 through the first two legs and taking the lead under the 800 leg. In the 1600 leg, Providence’s Kimberly May looked safe to take home the win for the Friars, but Margot Appleton made up a three-second deficit for UVA to take an improbable victory.
On the men’s side, Coach Pelligrini watched this event with me and pointed out that it wasn’t wise to overestimate the favorite. Marco Langdon is known for his do-or-die mentality, Dan Watchke has the third fastest 1000 time in collegiate history, and Liam Murphy has been a beast at multiple distances. So what could lead to their undoing? Their 400-meter leg, of course. Langdon took the lead in the backstretch and dropped the pack by two seconds, except Texas A&M’s Luca Santorum. However, Villanova’s 400-meter leg dropped four places and fell three seconds off the lead.
Only Texas A&M, Washington, and Oregon were in contention when the baton was passed to the final leg. That meant that several big dogs—Adam Spencer, Abel Teffra, Gary Martin, and Liam Murphy – didn’t have a chance, and Nathan Green was the obvious last man standing among sub-3:52 milers.
Pelligrini did not let his runners forget the importance of a 400-meter leg.
This was also a great day if you’ve ever wanted to see a 100-meter hurdles and a 100-meter race run concurrently, which ran concurrently on opposite ends of the field. Part of what makes the hurdles fun is the crashes, as seen below.
The event that brought the sprint-hungry crowd to its knees was the 4 X 400, which featured Bullis, Archbishop Carroll, Downingtown West, Toms River North (a school district known for its fame in the Little League World Series), and five schools from Jamaica. Even with Quincy Wilson holding down the anchor, the Jamaicans still showed their dominance, taking four of the top five spots, with Bullis getting second.
It was in the high school men’s 4 X 8 that the US that Rockhurst of Kansas City, Missouri erased a winning streak by the Jamaicans in that event and became the first Missouri-based school to win a Penn Relays title. An interview with them is attached.
The day ended with an “open” 5000-meter run. A couple of volunteers in the press section made it seem like we could spontaneously enter, but they were joking. Considering the men’s times were under 15:50, this appeared to be a far cry from the all-comers event it might have once been.
The day also ended with a couple of mass pizza deliveries like yesterday. Kyle, the press relations spokesman, begged us to take entire boxes home if possible. I appreciated the offer, but living to see another day of the Relays meant not overstuffing myself.
