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When Every Fan Leaned Forward - 2007 Boys 4x400 Relay at Penn Relays - DyeStatPublished by
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When Every Fan Leaned Forward The 2007 Penn Relays High School Boys 4x400 By Dave Devine for DyeStat The Jamaicans started testing them as soon as they arrived. Jibes and subtle jabs. Sidelong glances. Flags and face paint. Bumps and elbows in the early morning relay heats. Bold predictions raining down from the old brick stadium bleachers. All of it aimed at teenagers with backpacks and racing flats. Prodding the young athletes from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in California. Seeing what they were made of, how they handled the pressure. Where the weaknesses might lie. There weren’t many. Long Beach Poly — as the school is typically known — already had a celebrated history at the Penn Relays by the time the 113th edition rolled around in 2007, but somehow that year was different. Poly featured a formidable 4x400 squad on the boys’ side, anchored by a scintillating long-sprint talent, the sort of quarter-miler to come along once a decade at Penn. A young man with the heart and the wheels to challenge the potent Jamaican prep teams that annually descend on Philadelphia during the final weekend in April. A 2003 Poly team had been one of the few schoolboy squads from the United States capable of interrupting the steady string of champions from the likes of St. Jago, Camperdown, Wolmer’s Boys and Holmwood Tech. The Jamaicans knew all about the Jackrabbits of Long Beach Poly. And the Jackrabbits knew the Jamaicans. By early April, the Poly quartet had already dropped a nation-leading 3:14.63 in the 4x400 and a national record 1:28.43 in the 800-meter sprint medley relay, both posted at the venerable Arcadia Invitational in their home state of California. Now, they’d flown 2.500 miles to cement their reputation against a host of challengers in the City of Brotherly Love. There might be no greater single-day war of attrition in high school athletics than the Penn Relays boys 4x400-meter relay, with over 500 schools clawing through dozens of Saturday morning heats for the opportunity to toe the line at the evening Championship of America in front of nearly 50,000 fans. High school mile relays—or the 4x400 equivalent— have been featured at Penn since the founding year of the carnival in 1895. The 2007 contest is widely regarded as the best ever. On the 10-year anniversary of that historic clash, we step off the track and into the stands, onto the sidelines, the backstretch, the upper deck, out into Woo Corner and up into the announcer’s booth for a variety of perspectives on a race many longtime participants and observers consider the most thrilling race ever witnessed at the Penn Relays.
The Voices The Coach - Don Norford Legendary coach of the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits track and field team, Norford retired in 2014 as the most successful coach in California high school sports history. In a career that spanned 38 years, he led the boys and girls teams at his alma mater to a combined 25 CIF Southern Section titles and 19 California state championships. He was also an assistant football coach on 10 of Poly’s 19 CIF football titles, and has mentored numerous athletes who went on to become NCAA champions, Olympians and professional football players in the NFL. He was on the backstretch bleachers for the 2007 Penn Relays. The Historian - Walt Murphy Murphy is a longtime track journalist and historian, having worked on televised track meets since 1978, mostly with NBC and ESPN, but also with ABC, CBS and TBS. He has won three Emmy Awards as an associate producer for NBC, and is the publisher of Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service, which produces Eastern Track and XCountry XPress. He’s known for his highly detailed and hotly anticipated annual Penn Relays Preview, and can be reached at [email protected]. Some of his commentary is taken from the report he originally filed for Eastern Track in 2007. The Journalist - Steve Underwood A lifelong track fan and participant, Underwood was a senior editor for DyeStat.com in 2007, helming that year’s coverage for the Penn Relays. He is currently the Media and Public Relations Director for the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation, a non-profit that supports youth athletes and organizes numerous prep track and field and cross country events, most notably the New Balance National indoor and outdoor meets. Some of Underwood’s narration is from his original 2007 DyeStat reporting. The Photographer - Kirby Lee Considered one of the preeminent track and field photographers in the world, the California-based Lee covers athletic events around the globe for the Image of Sport international news bureau. From the Super Bowl to the Olympic Games, Lee has captured some of the iconic sporting images of our time. He was shooting at the finish line of the 2007 Penn Relays. It is his photographs that illustrate this story. Also, Ron Lopresti, who was the Franklin Field stadium announcer for high school events at the Penn Relays in 2007.
Into the Paddock Walt Murphy Steve Underwood Coach Don Norford Underwood Kirby Lee Coach Norford Underwood Coach Norford Lee
On the Line Forty-eight heats of the high school boys 4x400 had been reduced down to one heat of eight teams. Event 253: The High School Boys’ 4x400 Championship of America. Eight squads escorted from the crowded Penn Relays paddock at 5:25 pm, out onto the tight shoulder along the brick-walled homestretch. This was the race the crowd had been waiting for. Underwood Lee Murphy Coach Norford Underwood Coach Norford
Leg 1 – Joey Hughes As the fourth-fastest qualifying team, Long Beach Poly was relegated to Lane 9, outermost lane in Franklin Field’s unique track configuration at the time. It meant Poly’s charismatic leadoff, Joey Hughes, would be running blind his entire leg. The first legs for the top three Jamaican teams were curled into the staggers immediately behind him. When the gun sounded, the crowd immediately drowned out the stadium announcer. Coach Norford Underwood Murphy Ron Lopresti (stadium announcer) Coach Norford
Leg 2 – Isaiah Green At the break coming out of the first turn, when the second legs cut toward the rail from their lanes, St. Jago’s Nickel Ashmeade led a gradually gaining Isaiah Green down the backstretch. From there, the top four teams collapsed into a scrum through the curve. Coach Norford Lee Underwood Coach Norford Murphy
Leg 3 – Evant Orange Evant Orange hadn’t run in Poly’s morning qualifier, having been replaced by alternate Travionte Session, but he stood waiting for the baton from Green as the pivotal third leg in the final. He would need to keep it close if Nellum was going to have a chance against Blake. A massive move from Calabar’s Roderick Tennant on the first turn propelled the green-clad Jamaicans into the lead. Murphy Coach Norford Murphy Coach Norford Lopresti (stadium announcer) Coach Norford
The Anchor – Bryshon Nellum If the expectation was that Nellum would be pursuing Blake and the other Jamaican anchors over the final furlong, his teammate’s brave gambit down the stretch had flipped the script. Blake would be at Nellum’s heels instead. Nellum snatched the baton from Orange and blazed from the exchange zone with St. Jago’s star unfurling from a sprinter’s hunch to a full stride in pursuit. This was the clash everyone anticipated. The lid came off Franklin Field. Underwood Murphy Coach Norford Lee Lopresti (stadium announcer) Underwood Coach Norford Murphy Underwood Murphy Coach Norford Murphy Coach Norford Murphy Coach Norford Underwood Lee Coach Norford Murphy Coach Norford Lee Underwood Coach Norford
The Legacy A decade after their 2007 triumph, Long Beach Poly remains the last 4x400 team from the United States to defeat the Jamaican schools in the High School Boys Championship of America. The 3:09.89 they recorded that day is still the fourth-fastest time ever for high school boys at the Penn Relays, while St. Jago’s 3:10.43 is 10th-best in Penn history. (The 1997 John Muir, California, team, anchored by Obea Moore, claims the all-time record at 3:08.72.) Bryshon Nellum earned a silver medal as a member of the U.S. 4x400 relay at the 2012 London Olympics. He was selected by his fellow athletes to carry the American flag for Team U.S.A. in the closing ceremonies of those Games, and remains a professional track and field athlete. Yohan Blake is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, two-time Olympic silver medalist and twice a world champion competing individually and on relays for Jamaica. In a 2014 interview with the Long Beach-based Gazettes newspapers, Penn Relays meet director Dave Johnson remarked that the 2007 Long Beach Poly victory is “probably the most thrilling race I’ve watched at the Relays in the last 40 years.” Murphy Coach Norford Lee Underwood Murphy Coach Norford More news |