Following Girls High School Record, Union Catholic Boys Run 7:37.96 To Complete Sweep Of 4x800 Relay; Tate Taylor Backs Up National Record With Another 300 Win; Caleb Winders Wins 600 In Nation-Leading 1:17.88

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

John Nepolitan photos

INTERVIEWS/RACE VIDEOS

NEW YORK - A half hour after the girls team ran a high school record, the Union Catholic NJ boys 4x800 meters relay team ran the fourth-fastest time in high school history to win the invitational section Sunday afternoon at the 118th Millrose Games.

Elijah McCoy, Keandre Kelly, Quintin Clemons and Ciaran Brosnan ran a facility and meet record 7 minutes, 36.96 seconds, beating IMG Academy FL by half a second in 7:38.47, the fifth-fastest time ever.

"We were just trying to break the meet record," Clemons said. "We knew we could do it," 

McCoy ran 1:57.43 on the first leg, positioning Union Catholic in third, then Kelly moved them up to first with his 1:52.22. Clemons, running third, fell one spot behind IMG Academy's Lucas Brighty before handing off to anchor Brosnan.

Brosnan patiently waited to make his move on IMG Academy's anchor Juan Moncayo and did so with 400 to go, running his leg in 1:51.77.

"We've been wanting this for a long time," Brosnan said. "So happy to put it together; we did better than what we expected."

The win gave Union Catholic the 4x800 sweep after the girls team ran 8:40.07 for a new high school record, also beating IMG Academy.

Tate Taylor Wins 300m, Finishes Third In 60m 

Two weeks since breaking the high school record at the VA Showcase, Tate Taylor (Harlan TX) added another signature 300 win to his name, running 33.20 for the boys invitational title.

Taylor, who doubled back 43 minutes after running in the 60, sat in second through the first 200 before striding past Cameron Tucker (Robinson NC) in the final 100. Andrew jones (Klein Collins TX) took second in 33.40 and Tucker finished third in 33.52.

Dillon Mitchell (C.E. King TX) tied the US#3 in the boys 60, defeating both Chinweoke Onwuchekwa (Houston Cyp. Spring TX) second in 6.69 and Taylor third in 6.71. Onweuchekwa is currently US#1 with his sophomore class record 6.60 at the Texas Tech Wes Kittley Classic on Jan. 24

Caleb Winders (Bloomington North IN) ran a US#1 1:17.88 in the boys 600, completing a late comeback win over Joshua Cooper (Willow Spring NC) and Joshua Sharp (Upper Darby PA), who ran US#2 1:18.51 and US#3 1:18.96 for second and third, respectively. 

Caleb Ten Pas (Des Moines Christian IA), fourth after a quarter mile, led the final three-fourths of the Nike boys mile and won in 4:09.80. NXR Southeast champion Andrew Beroset (McCallie TN), trailing by as much as 10th, finished second in US#8 4:10.13.

In the boys 400, which didn't feature Quincy Wilson after a late scratch, Jayden Deleon (Montgomery Blair MD) won in 47.24.

US#1 DeMatha Catholic MD clocked 3:16.20 to win the boys 4x400 relay, less than a second off its nation-leading 3:15.33 from the VA Showcase.

Bergen Catholic NJ took down US#1 Archbishop Carroll DC and US#2 DeMatha Catholic in the boys 4x200 relay, running a US#3 1:26.24.

Miles Nesmith (Memphis Central TN) jumped a second-round mark of 51 feet, 9.25 inches to claim the boys triple jump title. Nesmith had three jumps over 51 feet.