Edwin Allen eyeing 4x800m ‘three-peat’ at Penns

The Michael Dyke-coached Edwin Allen High School girls’ team will be hunting three successive titles when they compete in the 4x800 metres at next week’s Penn Relays in Pennsylvania in the United States.

The team won the event in 2019 and 2022. The Relays were not held in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Edwin Allen have been dominant among their Jamaican rivals this season in winning at the Milo Western Relays and the Gibson McCook Relays where on both occasions they got the better of 11 times Penn Relays champions Holmwood Technical. At the Penn Relays their biggest challenge is expected to come from Union Catholic out of Scotch Plains, New Jersey, the number one team going into the Penn Relays.

A year ago Union Catholic finished third in the final after defeating Edwin Allen in the preliminary round. One of their athletes fell in the final and this cost them dearly and they will be hoping to avenge that defeat this time around. In February at the New Balance National Indoor Championships, they finished second in the event in eight minutes 48.68 seconds, the second-fastest time ever by a high school team from the United States in the event indoors and in their second ever time competing at Penns will be hoping to go all the way.

With a season’s best eight minutes 51.61 seconds in winning at the Milo Western Relays, the Edwin Allen team will be hoping to upstage their North American counterparts. Two members of last year’s successful team, Leanna Lewis and Rickeisha Simms, are back and with the ISSA-GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships Class One 800 metres champion Amoya Jameison and Class Two winner Monique Stewart set to bolster their team, it could be win number eight for Edwin Allen who are tied on second overall with seven wins with Vere Technical.

Despite playing second fiddle so far this season to Edwin Allen, Holmwood cannot be taken lightly. After failing to finish in the event at the Penn Relays last year when Samantha Pryce fractured her leg after running into a rail on the track, they will be highly motivated this time around. The Dave Anderson-coached team has retained three members from last year’s team in Cindy Rose, Andrene Peart and Jodyann Mitchell and will be hoping to make it win number 12.