Ristananna and Nikita Tracey, two sisters and students at Edwin Allen High School in Jamaica, received plaques for their outstanding performance at Penns. in the 115 th annual Penn Relays carnival in Philadelphia.
First, Nikita was named the 2009 Penn Relays female high school individual athlete of the meet after winning the 400m hurdles.
Her time of 57.44 secs. made her joint holder of the second fastest time done by a high school girl at Penns. She is tied with Nicole Leach, who ran for Philadelphia’s West Catholic High but now competes for UCLA. The record for this event is held by Sherene Pinnock, a former Edwin Allen hurdler, who posted 56.90 in 2006. Nikita was a finalist at the 2008 IAAF World Junior Championships and won the event at Jamaica high school championships and the CARIFTA Games this year.
Then it was Ristananna’s moments of glory. She ran two fantastic anchor legs for her school to take the high school girls Championship of America 4x400m and 4x800m titles and was named the high school female relay athlete of the meet.
The 18-year-old first ran a 2:07.9 secs. split in the 4×8 and then did a 54.1 secs. on the 4×4, moving Edwin Allen from third position in the final 100m to first at the finish line, running by the formidable distance runner Natoya Goule of Jamaica’s Manchester High and the gritty quarter-miler Petra Fanty of Holmwood Technical. It was Edwin Allen’s first win of the 4×4 at Penns.