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When Every Fan Leaned Forward - 2007 Boys 4x400 Relay at Penn Relays - DyeStat

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DyeStat.com   Apr 25th 2017, 11:35pm
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Programming Note: The 2017 Penn Relays will be broadcast live from Franklin Field in Philadelphia, PA Thursday through Saturday April 27-29 via USATF.TV +PLUS and NBC Sports Network. The USATF.TV broadcast will require a RunnerSpace +PLUS subscription. All events from the USATF.TV will be made available for on-demand viewing on USATF.TVSign up here for RunnerSpace +PLUS.

 

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.

Franklin Field

 

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.

Walk Up 

Into the Paddock

Walt Murphy
All of the elements were in place — a strong Jamaican contingent, supported by thousands of flag-waving fans, going up against a powerful team from California. And there was the prospect of an anchor duel between two of the most talented preps to ever run at Penn. 

Steve Underwood
There had been a buildup all weekend to Poly versus St. Jago in that 4x400 final, with Bryshon Nellum and Yohan Blake as the central figures. 

Coach Don Norford
The Jamaicans, for some reason, they had the names of all our kids, and they’d be yelling at them…crazy stuff. 

Underwood
Earlier in the day, Poly had won its heat, qualifying fourth overall in 3:14.07, and Bryshon Nellum had shown frightening acceleration in the final 200 of a 46.3 anchor. But there was St. Jago. And Kingston College Prep and Calabar. All had run under 3:15 in the prelims and St. Jago was the darling of the Jamaican throngs, with young superstar Yohan Blake. 

Kirby Lee
You could feel the anticipation, with the Jamaican horns blowing and the flag-waving fans, which easily outnumbered the fans with U.S. flags. 

Coach Norford
The Jamaicans would come down there and try to intimidate us. They’d send all these guys down to sit in our area. And we’d just look at them, like — Alright. Because they never could intimidate us. We were solid in knowing what we needed to do. And we highly respected them. 

Underwood
Earlier in the afternoon, in an almost all-Jamaican final, Blake and St. Jago had thrilled everyone with the first sub-40 4x100 in Penn history, a 39.96. 

Coach Norford
When we went over to walk the kids to the entry gate, those Jamaicans were talking. Yohan-Blake-this, Yohan-Blake-that… 

Lee
I honestly thought it was going to be a Jamaican sweep of the top three, with Poly relegated to the top American finish.

paddock 

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
As the teams lined up for the race, the clouds had become darker than they had all day. The crowd was already whipped into a frenzy, and an unPenn-like slowdown in the boom-boom-boom succession of events allowed the drama to build even further. 

Lee
It was as loud or louder than the USA vs. the World races. 

Murphy
The crowd of 46,000 was in a frenzy even before the starting gun was fired. 

Coach Norford
And then we got up into the stands, they was saying, ‘You’re wasting your time, Coach. You should’ve stayed in the ocean in Long Beach.’ I loved it, though. Loved it. 

Underwood
It seemed like that stadium was as full as I've ever seen it. 

Coach Norford
They didn’t realize how good Bryshon was.

 

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
We knew Joey liked to start a relay, and he doesn’t care what lane he’s in. He’s oblivious to the crowd. You just have to know — Joey’s a free spirit. 

Underwood
Once the gun went off, it was impossible to hear anything but screams and whistles for the next three-plus minutes. 

Murphy
Calabar was a clear leader for the first 200 meters of the opening leg, but Jason Livermore (49.6) tied up down the stretch and it was St. Jago’s Riker Hylton (47.9) which led Long Beach Poly’s Joey Hughes (48.1) and Kingston College’s Roland Berch (48.6) at the first exchange. 

Ron Lopresti (stadium announcer)
St. Jago with the early lead, and then…Long Beach Poly! 

Coach Norford
We practice in all lanes. Joey saw that as a challenge; it didn’t blow his mind.

First exchange

  

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
Isaiah was a great 200 runner, so that’s why he was the second leg. He would keep us in the race. 

Lee
Penn Relays is a circus, especially during the Jamaican high school races. Just like an athlete, you need to block out the external distractions and focus on photographing the race. 

Underwood
I recall trying to make a few comments to someone sitting next to me and I literally could not hear my own voice. 

Coach Norford
Isaiah Green was going to give us all he had. He didn’t love the quarter, to tell you the truth, but I knew he would run it for us. Him and Bryshon had been running with each other since they were little kids, so he was going to run for his friend. We figured he could run 47. 

Murphy
Garfield Germany’s 46.8 got Calabar back into the race quickly, and the four leading teams came charging off the final turn virtually even with each other. Nickel Ashmeade (47.9) edged ahead to give gave St. Jago a short lead over Poly’s Isaiah Green (48.1), Calabar, and Kingston.

leg 2

 

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
On the 3rd leg, Calabar’s Roderick Tennant (48.8) passed Poly’s Evant Orange (48.3) and then went by St. Jago’s Adolphus Nevers (49.6) at the end of the backstretch. 

Coach Norford
Evant — we knew he had the talent, but he finally put it together. And he was the big difference, because he put us out in front. We expected him to do that, because in practice he was finally understanding what we were asking him to do. 

Murphy
Coming off the turn, Orange went by [Calabar and St. Jago] and gave anchor Bryshon Nellum a two-meter lead as the three Jamaican teams handed off together. 

Coach Norford
He made the move that he was supposed to make. And you saw the results of it. 

Lopresti (stadium announcer)
Long Beach Poly from California…with the lead! 

Coach Norford
Anybody that follows my program knows that we don’t run from nobody. We don’t care who you are —  we’re going to compete.

 

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
By the time Nellum and Blake got their batons for the anchor, it just became this immense wall of sound. 

Murphy
It had already been a great race, but now the crowd was treated to the icing on the cake. Yohan Blake, who had earlier anchored St. Jago to a Relays record in the 4x100, started chasing Nellum. 

Coach Norford
We had prepared Bryshon for that. Bryshon was way ahead in terms of maturity for a young man, so he understood what he was up against. 

Lee
The thing about Bryshon, he never loses his composure and always sticks to his race plan, no matter what the circumstance. 

Lopresti (stadium announcer)
Byshon Nellum…U.S. number one in the 400! 

Underwood
Blake was smart enough not to try to dash into the lead in the first 100 of the lap, but with Nellum’s second-200 abilities, he didn’t have much chance to pass him late, either. 

Coach Norford
We knew at certain areas of that track, you’d have to make moves. They were going to make their moves, but we were ready to counter what they’d do. We knew that with Yohan coming off the curve there, he was going to give it all he had, because it’s the loudest area. 

Murphy
He caught him as they came off the final turn. 

Underwood
It was a continuous roar the likes of which I've never heard at Penn or any other meet I've attended, before or since. 

Murphy
A new standard was set for the ‘Woo Index,’ which is used to measure the noise of the crowd sitting along the final turn at Franklin Field. 

Coach Norford
You could feel it in your chest. Like going to a drag car race…all in your chest. It was something I’ve never felt before. I mean, you couldn’t hear yourself talk. 

Murphy
It looked like Blake’s momentum would carry him into the lead. 

Coach Norford
I figured that Yohan Blake couldn’t beat Bryshon in a quarter. And I studied how the Jamaicans — how St. Jago — ran their quarters. So we knew what they were going to do, how they were going to run their quarters. We made our adjustments, too. 

BryshonMurphy
Nellum had something left. 

Coach Norford
We knew that if you put Bryshon out front, Bryshon is not going to just run crazy, and leave nothing left at the end. All my kids are taught that you got to finish the race. You got to be the strongest at the end of the race, the most relaxed athlete out there. 

Underwood
Both ran strong all the way to the tape, but Nellum never gave an inch. 

Lee
I've seen him run some pretty epic legs. 

Coach Norford
When Bryshon felt him coming, Bryshon hit another gear. Yohan couldn’t match it. 

Murphy
Nellum was able told off Blake, as both split 45.4. 

Coach Norford
A lot of times the Jamaicans will run to the crowd. They’ll try to do something super, because they’re running for their nation. But we were running for our nation, too. 

Lee
I remember the disbelief on the Jamaican fans as Poly crossed the line. 

Underwood
It was more than four seconds faster than Poly’s Arcadia time, and, with Nellum running 45.4 – as he did there three weeks ago – it was clear how much credit was deserved by the first three legs. 

Coach Norford
When we went back into the stands, Americans were coming up to us and saying, ‘Thank you, thank you, for beating the Jamaicans.’ We were shaking hands for a long time that day. Yes, we were.

Win

 

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
Few events live up to their hype, but this one exceeded all expectations. 

Coach Norford
How many races have been run at Penn? To say that the one your team was in is one of the best high school mile relays ever? Maybe the best? I hope they honor those kids one day.

Norford and Bryson

Lee
What I remember the most is the victory lap that the Poly relay took after the race. Fans threw them United States flags and gave them a standing ovation as they took a victory lap. Seeing that moment was as much pure emotion as I have ever seen at a sporting event, rivaling the Olympics or the Super Bowl. 

Underwood
I have a lot of great Penn memories, but this is right at the top. 

Murphy
I’ve seen a lot of great track in a half-century as a fan, and this was one of the most exciting races I’ve ever witnessed.  

Coach Norford 
It was a special day. So many people are still talking about that race.

Team photo



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