Jamaican high schools ended their 2025 Penn Relay competition in a blaze of glory Saturday (26) going against familiar home rivals and staging another clash with American schools led by Bullis school of Maryland.
Having witnessed a 4x400m thriller in which their male team compatriots defeat pre-race favorites Bullis School of the US, four Jamaican schools girls teams reached the final of the female equivalent with Jamaica’s Edwin Allen leading the group of nine qualifiers based on the times they posted in the preliminary rounds.
For yet another time, the Jamaicans found themselves in three-way battle for supremacy with home rivals Edwin Allen High and Bullis. Earlier in the afternoon, Hydel lost the 4x100m title to fierce rivals Edwin Allen and was in no mood to lose another race, the final clash between them.
The race was in progress, and three-time defending event champion Hydel was the first team to make it to the break pole, followed by Bullis School, Edwin Allen, and Holmwood Tech also of Jamaica about 10 meters back.
Hydel increased their lead to 20 meters ahead of Bullis and Holmwood going into the second exchange, as Bullis and Holmwood Tech were even at the baton exchange, while Edwin Allen was close behind. Edwin Allen, Bullis, and Holmwood continued to battle for second and third place throughout the third leg, while Hydel maintained their 20-meter lead over the group.
On the final leg, the Bullis girls separated themselves from Holmwood Tech and Edwin Allen and tried closing the gap on Hydel (Natassia Fletcher, Abigail Campbell, Sashana Johnson), and Jody-Ann Daley) was not threatened though and powered through the finish line in a new meet and facility record time of 3:30.42. Bullis finished in second place in 3:33.30, the new third-best time in meet history, while Edwin Allen finished third.
Hydel was enjoying their fourth consecutive win in this event, and sixth overall event win. Their splits were recorded at 53.06 – 52.46 – 52.47 – 52.28 for Fletcher, Campbell, Johnson, and Daley, respectively.
Just after the trophy presentation to Hydel, Bullis’ coach Joe Lee (right in photo) greeted Hydel’s coach Cory Bennet with a handshake and a hug and said jokingly asked him if he couldn’t give him a chance [to win]. Bennett responded with the bragging rights smile of a champion coach and stood with Lee for a photo.
The situation seems set to repeat itself for yet another time, next year. See Results