Coatesville boys 4×100 posts fastest American time at Penn Relays

The Coatesville boys’ sprint relay turned a lot of heads on Friday afternoon at the 2019 Penn Relays at Franklin Field.

The 4×100 team of Eric Kirk, Dapree Bryant, Aaron Young and Dymere Miller won its qualifying heat in a time of 41.55 and will head into Saturday’s Championship of America as the third overall seed, with two relays from Jamaica seeded ahead of them.

More than 100 relay teams from across the nation and beyond filled out over 12 heats, and the Red Raiders’ time was the best of any team from the United States.

“There is like 500 schools here, so it was a good feeling,” said Kirk, who ran the second leg.

“When we saw the time, we were a little surprised because of the weather.”

The Raiders’ heat took place late Friday morning when the temperature was about 60 degrees, and the track was wet due to the rainy conditions.

“We are aiming to run a better time (Saturday) with, hopefully, better conditions,” Kirk said. “Our exchanges were good but there is always room for improvement.”

According to the Coatesville record book, the time was the 4×100’s fastest this season by nearly a half-second, and was just two-hundreds of a second off the school record, set in 2017. Interestingly, Kirk and Young were on that relay team as sophomores along with Terrance Laird and Jalen Washington. That group won the state title with a time of 41.53.

“I think we can get (the school record),” Kirk predicted. “We’re aiming for it, of course. It’s going to be a bunch fast relay teams so that will push us.”

Coatesville’s time was five-tenths of a second off the pace set by Kingston College in Jamaica (41.05). Another team from Jamaica placed second.

The top nine overall times qualify for Saturday’s 4×100 Championship Final, scheduled to take place at 2:04 p.m.

Central Dauphin East and New Jersey’s Nottingham are the only other American schools in the final, with the other six teams coming from Jamaica.

Downingtown West’s 4×100 relay will compete in the High School Boys’ Northeast 4×100 on Saturday after running a qualifying time of 42.58.

In other events:

Coatesville’s 4×100 Northeast girls relay placed fifth in a time of 48.39. The team includes Wiltricia Snoh, Porsha MIles, Sammie Miller and Patty Rokins. The Red Raiders’ 4×100 will compete Saturday in the 4×100 Tri-State.

Bishop Shanahan’s Jonah Hoey finished third in the Mile Run Championship with a time of 4:19.17, finishing behind less than a second behind winner Foster Malleck of St. Mary’s in Ontario, Canada.

In the javelin, Coatesville’s Ricky Ortega was sixth (190 feet 4 inches) and Young was 12th (169 feet 7 inches).