Distance Gala Penn Relays Distance Preview

Penn Relays Individual Entries / Penn Relays Website

The annual Penn Relays is right around the corner. The showcase of much of America's best prep track and field talent is an event that can't be missed. On Tuesday afternoon, the Penn Relays staff announced their individual entries, highlighted by a handful of extremely successful distance runners.

Leading the way in the girls 3,000m run is Foot Locker champion Aisling Cuffe (Cornwall, NY). The Stanford-bound senior is having a record-breaking track season thus far and only hopes for bigger and better things as she heads into Penn Relays weekend. 

Cuffe's biggest competition will come from Haley Pierce (Tatnall, DE) and Waverly Neer (Culver Academy, IN). Both Pierce and Neer had tremendous indoor campaigns, especially Neer, who broke the high school indoor 5,000m record at indoor nationals.

On the boys side, the North Carolina duo of Scott Morgan (Calvary Baptist Day, NC) and Thomas Graham (Cary, NC) lead the way, each having breakout seasons and both looking to notch their first Penn Relays victory. Both athletes should be looking to push very fast times and the crowd should be in for quite a show.

While the boys 3k is a strong event, the highlight event is easily the boys mile. A quartet of talent leads the way, with Chad Noelle (Greene Central, NY), Matt Jablonski (Loyola Bakersfield, MD), Miles Schoedler (Ocean City, NJ) and Jacob Burcham (Cabell Midland, WV) all seeking the win. Each individual has flashed their distance running talents all season long, and with PRs being relatively close across the board, this race should be a battle all the way to the finish line.

Highlighting the girls mile is Ajee Wilson (Neptune, NJ). The junior sensation has come up big time and again at national events and she will once again be able to showcase her skills on the biggest of stages. Wilson is the easy favorite at this point, but has plenty of competition that'll be chasing her and looking to pull off the upset.