Irish boys, TCU shine at Penn

St. Malachy's plan for the Penn Relays didn't include dropping the baton 20 meters into its first race, but in the end, Irish eyes were smiling. In the 106th running of the Penn Relays, the high school boys team from Belfast, Northern Ireland, continued its dominance in the distance medley, while adding something new to its impressive Relays resume -- a 4x800 championship. Coming into the Relays, St. Malachy's was the overwhelming favorite in the DMR, but the Irish squad started Friday's action with a disastrous mishap. Barely into the first turn of the race, St. Malachy's leadoff leg, Thomas Frazer, dropped the baton. And by the time he picked up the stick, he was 25 meters behind the rest of the pack. The red-haired Frazer turned on his jets and rocketed into third by the end of the first lap, but the chase to rejoin the leaders took a lot out of him. Frazer turned in a 3:06.9 split in the 1,200 to leave St. Malachy's in an unfamiliar position after one leg -- second place. "I dropped the baton just to get some more media attention and create more excitement," Frazer joked. "But when I dropped it, I definitely had to change around my plan of attack." St. Malachy's took the lead on Francis McCaffrey's 49.7 run in the 400 leg, but found itself back in second after John Frazer -- Thomas' brother -- turned in a 1:56.2 split in the 800. The team from the Emerald Isle still looked to be in control, however, as Conor Sweeney, their star miler, was set to run the anchor. But St. Malachy's didn't count on Adam Webb of South Lakes, Va. While Sweeney toyed with St. Anthony's (N.Y.) and Washington Township (N.J.) at the front of the pack, Webb was weaving his way through the rest of the crowd. Handed the baton in seventh place, 250 meters behind the leaders, Webb dashed into second place with a lap to go, but in the end, couldn't quite catch up to Sweeney. Webb turned in a blazing Relays high school record split of 3:59.9, but Sweeney's 4:07.9 -- including a 56-second bell lap -- was just enough to hold off the South Lakes star. St. Malachy's won the high school DMR for the fourth straight year, but one win would not be enough for the Irish team this year. For the first time, St. Malachy's entered the 4x800 at the Penn Relays. The boys from Erin easily qualified on Friday morning for the finals the next day, and they took the track on Saturday afternoon as the favorites yet again. Through seven laps, however, victory looked far from assured. Sweeney was a stride behind Hermado Jarrett of Bellefield Comprehensive (Jamaica). But Sweeney flew past Jarrett 300 meters from the finish line, and St. Malachy's had its double victory. Two wins at the Relays is certainly impressive, but the men from Texas Christian one-upped the team from St. Malachy's, winning the 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 relays on Saturday. Only three times before in the 106-year history of the Penn Relays had a school won all three sprint relays, and possibly none as impressively as TCU. The Horned Frogs started their speedshow with a resounding 10-meter win in the 4x100 and ended it by nipping the field in an extremely close 4x400 relay. But they flew fastest in between -- in the 4x200. In Friday's qualifying heat, TCU came within 2/10 of a second of the national collegiate record of 1:20.20 -- set by the 1986 TCU squad. TCU's winning mark of 1:19.67 not only broke the national and Franklin Field records, it bested the 1:19.92 time that the USA squad anchored by 100-meter World Record holder Maurice Greene turned in on Saturday. And the Horned Frogs were less than a second off the 4x200 world record of 1:18.68.

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