Dyke: It was shaping up to be our best year at Penn Relays

THE final weekend in April each year is known worldwide as the time for the Penn Relays at the Franklin Field Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

After a historic 125th anniversary last year, this year’s staging, the 126th, was also expected to be special as it was the year of the Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan and the World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya. On March 16, however, the Division of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athleics at the University of Pennsylvania announced that the 2020 meet was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. It was a big disappointment for many local schools and especially so for inter-secondary girls’ champions Edwin Allen High.

Head coach of Edwin Allen, Michael Dyke, the most successful high school coach at the carnival with some 19 relay successes, including eight in the 4x100m and five each in the 4x400 and 4x800m, was looking forward to an outstanding meet for his girls.

“This was shaping up to be our best year at the Penn Relays based on the make-up of the teams. I was very confident that our 4x100m team could have broken the Penn Relays and National Junior records and seriously challenged the World Junior record,” said Dyke.

“It was also our intention to challenge our school record in the 4x800m, and by extension, the Penn Relays record, once the conditions were right, and I am sure we could have sprung a surprise in the 4x400m. In individual events, I had no doubt that Lashanna Graham would have successfully defended her 400m hurdles title along with Lotavia Brown in the triple jump. Ackeila Smith was also on target to win the long jump so it would have been a super Penn Relays for us, but God knows best, and despite being disappointed, we won’t lament over God’s handling of His work. Let’s give thanks for life without Champs and Penn Relays and all the other meets and continue to practise social distance and, hopefully, come back bigger and better next year, God’s willing,” concluded Dyke.

After impressive performances all season, all eyes were definitely on Edwin Allen’s girls, especially their 4x100 metres quartet. A year ago a very young quartet of Serena Cole, Kevona Davis, and twins Tina and Tia Clayton cantered to an impressive record run of 43.62 seconds to win the high school Championships event, the time the fastest ever at the , with times of 43.80 and 43.73, respectively.

While the winning quartet at last year’s Penn Relays record-breaking team was intact, lead-off runner Cole was set to be replaced on this year’s team by the vastly improved Hall, who ran in the preliminary round a year ago. Hall, with a season and personal best of 11.38 seconds for 100m, usually runs the third leg on the Class Two team. With Davis in the team for the Penn Relays, a 43-low time was on the cards and the National Junior record of 43.40 and the World Junior Record of 43.27, set three years ago by a quartet from Germany, were both in danger. This would have been the final year of eligibility at Penns for Davis, and definitely, she was on target to make it four out of four, with three of these being record runs. It would also have been seven wins in a row for the Frankfield-based school and nine overall after their first success in 2009.