Despite rain, cold, and wind, the Quakers came out on top on the final day of The Penn Relay Carnival.
As the competition wound down, another collegiate record was grounded at Franklin Field and multiple meet records were broken. While visiting schools shone on the track, the Red and Blue made their mark on the field.
Senior high jumper Kampton Kam defended the fort in his final Penn Relays wearing the Red and Blue. The Singapore native first earned the watch and wheel last year, clearing the 2.20-meter bar without a single failure. This time around, Kam made it to the 2.17-meter bar in a season-best performance, all while battling a foot injury.
“As a senior, it’s been sweet, man,” Kam said. “Everything’s coming to an end … this is my last time jumping at home.”
Freshman thrower Jessica Oji captured her first collegiate Penn Relays title with an 18.15-meter throw on her third attempt. A standing-room-only crowd craned their heads to get a view of the freshman phenomenon as whispers of her talent floated around the competition.
Although Oji only had two successful throws, she remained head and shoulders above the rest of the field, who did not surpass 16.25 meters. This is Oji’s third consecutive Penn Relays title after two victories in high school.
“I’ve always wanted to win the meet while wearing the Penn stripes,” Oji said. “When I came in here, I was like, ‘I have to win this [event] all four years.’ This is just the start of it. First part of the four parts, three more parts to go.”
Senior thrower Angeludi Asaah also picked up some hardware in the discus. Asaah had a strong enough first attempt to secure her spot in the finals with a 51.80-meter throw. Throughout the competition, she stayed consistent, improving her mark by two centimeters on the final throw. She ultimately placed fifth as Arizona State’s Ines Lopez claimed the title.
“[It’s] bittersweet to be ending,” Asaah said. “I’m glad I medaled, I’m grateful to have medaled. It was a good competition — I just hope to throw a big one soon.”
On the infield, junior jumper Adannia Agbo scored a new outdoor personal record en route to a silver medal in the triple jump championship. Her 12.89-meter hop, skip, and jump ties for No. 3 in program history alongside 2025 College graduate Tumi Onaleye. In her quest for a back-to-back podium finish, Agbo displayed remarkable consistency, never wavering below a 12.56-meter attempt.
“I just felt really fast [and] really strong,” Agbo said. “I just decided to trust everything that I’ve been working on this week at practice and it’s slowly coming back together.”
Freshman pole vaulter Thomas Bucks built off of sophomore pole vaulter Alex Georgiev’s victory with a sixth-place finish in the pole vault championship. Although Bucks entered the event seeded 13th out of 14 competitors, he proved to be an adversary, clearing 5.17 meters.
In the 4x800-meter Championship of America, the oldest Penn Relays record fell in a Big Ten battle.
The field ran deep with collegiate juggernauts from Penn State, Georgetown, and Michigan dominating the conversation. From gun to tape, this was no tactical race, as the top five starting legs split 1:50 or under in their first two laps around the oval. By the final baton pass, Penn State and Michigan had separated themselves from the field with a sizable gap.
The Big Ten rivals were on meet-record pace as their two anchors, Allon Clay of Penn State and Trent McFarland of Michigan, duked it out in the final 800 meters. At the final curve, McFarland made the move to take the lead, anchoring the Wolverines to the victory in 1:46.12. The previous record — held by the Nittany Lions since 1985 — was shattered by almost two seconds.
After losing by inches in yesterday’s distance medley relay Championship of America, Villanova came back with vengeance in the 4xMile. In a loaded field, the race came down to the wire as the top three teams finished within a second of one other.
By the final leg, it was a five-team race between Virginia, Wisconsin, NAU, Oregon and Villanova. In the final lap, Villanova’s anchor and distance star, Marco Langon, made a move on the back stretch, which Oregon’s anchor, Simeon Birnbaum, attempted to respond to.
The faceoff eerily mirrored yesterday’s distance medley relay as Birnbaum initially appeared to hold off Langon, but fueled by a “home crowd,” Langon fought off the fatigue to keep the victory in Philadelphia.
“It’s for my teammates,” Langon said. “It was for them more than it was for me. I wasn’t going to leave this program without anchoring a wheel of my own and being a part of it with these guys I train with every day, argue with every day.”
The smell of fried Oreos and funnel cakes greeted spectators piling in early for a chance to watch Olympic gold medalist Quincy Wilson on the oval in the 4x400-meter relay heats. Misfires, false starts, and loose spikes defined the morning until the Bullis School senior took the stage for the penultimate time in his high school career.
Bullis entered the finals as the top seed, nine hundredths of a second ahead of defending champion Kingston College of Jamaica. Facing off in a rainy final, Michael Swanson of Bullis took the lead on the third lap from Virginia’s Archbishop Carroll after a strong baton exchange. But Jamaica College and Archbishop Carroll were right at his heels going into the final handoff.
The stadium roared as Wilson entered the oval, widening the gap between his opponents. As Bullis came down the final stretch, it was clear: the Bulldogs would become the first American team in 19 years to win the boys’ 4x400-meter Championship of America. Wilson closed in 45.44 seconds to to help Bullis to a 3:10.15 finish.
“It feels great [to win],” Wilson said. “I think we executed that race really well, maybe not the conditions we wanted with the weather but that didn’t stop us. Rain, sleet, or snow, my team’s always ready to go.”
“Penn Relays, we call it the International Championship of the world because it’s when everybody comes together and puts on a spectacle,” Bullis coach Joe Lee said. “But it’s only one shot … We love to come here and try to be at our best, and even when we’re not at our best, you win and you learn — you never lose.”
Deputy sports editor Kaia Feichtinger-Erhart contributed reporting to this article.
