The Penn Relays’ boys’ 4x400 championship delivers a record-setting finale
U.S. Olympian Quincy Wilson and Bullis broke a 40-year-old American high school record. But his anchor leg came up just short as Jamaica's Kingston College won a fourth straight title.
The most-anticipated event Friday at the Penn Relays lived up to the billing.
Jamaica’s Kingston College edged suburban D.C.’s Bullis School in the high school boys’ 4x400-meter championship, as a thrilling comeback by Bullis star Quincy Wilson came up just short in the anchor leg.
Bullis was in a surprising fifth place when Wilson took the baton from Colin Abrams, trailing Calabar and Excelsior as well as Kingston. The 17-year-old, who ran for the U.S. at last year’s Olympics, roared around the first turn and back stretch, electrifying the afternoon crowd — with even some of the Jamaican fans cheering him on.
Wilson’s 43.99-second anchor leg wasn’t quite enough to pass Marcinho Rose in the final meters. But it was enough to do something perhaps even more remarkable: break a 40-year-old national high school record in the 4x400.
Bullis’ team time of 3:06.31 topped Hawthorne of the Los Angeles area’s 3:07.40, set in 1985 at the Texas Relays.
“I just think about going back and looking at all the records — this is probably one of the hardest records that’s ever been broken,” Wilson said. “To be able to break it down with the best guys — and we didn’t just break it, we broke it by a whole second — that shows [the] dedication and hard work of each and one of us.”
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He admitted he wasn’t thinking about history when he took the baton, being so far behind. But he was fine with having the pressure on his shoulders, having told his teammates he’d take it so they wouldn’t have to.
“I’ve been on the big stage, so I said if they had any pressure, if they were nervous, put it all on me,” Wilson said. “That’s the best thing I can do because if they’re going to throw the pressure on me, I’m going to throw it back on God.”
The prayers of American fans for a first U.S. champion in the event in 18 years weren’t answered in the heavenly skybox. But Wilson still enjoyed himself, and fans can look forward to him coming back one more time with Bullis as a senior next spring.
“Is it fun? I wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t fun” he said. “Yes, it’s fun, I love it.”
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Kingston’s win earned its own place in the history books as the school’s fourth straight. That tied a Relays record in the event that has stood since 1910, set by the former Manual Training High School of Brooklyn, N.Y.
On top of that, Friday’s top five finishers — Kingston, Bullis, Calabar (3:06.52), Excelsior (3:07.98), and Jamaica College (3:08.06) — clocked times that now stand as No. 2 through No. 6 in the Relays history books. Calabar’s 3:03.79 in 2018 is No. 1, and the same school’s 3:08.59 was No. 2 until now.
“I have such respect for the history of the sport, whether it be Hawthorne High School, Long Beach Poly, a lot of the records that we’ve been privileged to be a part of,” Bullis coach Joe Lee said. “We want to represent our school, our families, our community, and the USA and the sport. Our kids do a great job with that — they’re very well-mannered, well-educated, strong-character people.”
He admitted that coming up just short “stings a little bit,” but he wasn’t complaining beyond that.
“You know what, that’s the sport,” Lee said. “We’re not crying, we’re not making excuses, and we’re happy that we got a chance to come out here and compete.”
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