Clayton And Scotch Plains Open Eyes In 4x400 At Penn Relays

Apr 30, 2022

PHILADELPHIA -- While almost all eyes at Franklin Field were locked on Jamaica powerhouse Hydel as they chased down the meet record in the girls Championship of America 4x400 race, a pair of New Jersey teams opened plenty of eyes with sensational performances on Friday.

While Hydel charged across the line first in 3:32.77 to smash the meet record of 3:33, Clayton (NJ) finished a strong fourth in 3:44.67, No. 12 in NJ history and U.S. No. 6 this season, and Scotch Plains-Fanwood came across the line in eighth place in 3:48.14, which is US No. 14.

It was the first appearance in a girls Championship of America race for Clayton and Scotch Plains, and they certainly held their own as they represented half of the U.S. teams that ran in the nine-team race.

Clayton, led by Ariel Sharpe, Arianna Sharpe and Amirah Sharpe, who are all participating in the New Jersey Bridge Year Program this school year ,and Kelsey Thomas crushed the Gloucester County record of 3:47.39 that they set in Thursday's qualifying heats. Split times weren't included with the official results.

"Our main goal was to come home with the [small school] plaque, which we did," Clayton coach Fred Sharpe said regarding Thursday's qualifying race. "We came out and ran 3:47 and were surprised because the record was 3:54. Once we broke the record, we were good. We dropped three seconds today with a 3:44, and I'm happy. We knew we had it in us."

"I knew the Jamaicans would be way out there," said Fred Sharpe. "I told the girls to just go out there and run. I stacked the relay at the top with Ariel first, Arianna second, and Amirah third, and I told Kelsey that I'd be happy with anything under a minute. I wanted to make it look good through the first three laps. It was a great experience and fun atmosphere."

For Scotch Plains, Grace Kennedy split 56.4, Danielle Most ran 61.4, Jenai Berry went 56.9, and Julia Jackson ripped a a PR anchor split 52.9 as she picked off Excelsior of Jamaica to move SPF from ninth to eighth.

SPF coach Jeff Koegel was thrilled with how his squad ran on the sports biggest stage.

"It was a big victory for us just to qualify for the race and put ourselves on a bigger stage with so many good programs,'' said Koegel. "We accomplished our goal of running faster than we did on Thursday (3:50.69 in its qualifying heat).

Qualifying for the COA has been on our to-do list for about two years. Penn Relays being canceled last year made us even hungrier considering Julia and Grace are seniors. We did this with three Penn Relays rookies (only Jackson ran here before).''

Koegel said the race played out perfectly for Jackson to showcase her

"That was an ideal situation for Julia to get the baton,'' said Koegel. "She had someone to chase the whole way. She ran very smart- didn't go out too fast and avoided gassing herself. I'm very proud of how she ran. We are looking forward to championship season now and getting an open time under 53.00. And our team is only about 1.4 seconds behind what we ran to win at the Meet of Champions last year (3:46.73).''