Ever since narrowly missing the national record in the distance medley relay two months ago, the Union Catholic girls have been aiming to take it down at the New Balance National Championships.
The Vikings didn't just break it on Sunday in Philadelphia, they blew the record apart by dropping a bomb on the Franklin Field oval with an absolute masterpiece, stopping the clock at a mind-boggling 11:12.20!!
Union Catholic obliterated the national and meet record of 11:20.44 that Cuthbertson of North Carolina ran to finish first at the NB National Championships last year.
UC's 11:12.20 also breaks the overall (indoors/outdoors combined) national high school DMR record of 11:17.50 that Cuthbertson ran at the 2024 New Balance National Indoor Championships in Boston.
The lineup for UC's record-breaking DMR consisted of sophomore Sophia Thompson (3:25.76), senior Taylor Aska (53.69 ), sophomore Kayla Devine (2:16.79) and sophomore Paige Sheppard (4:35.97).
UC came with four seconds and change of breaking Cuthbertson's record when the Vikings ran 11:24.53 to smash the meet record on this same track at the Penn Relays in April.
Where did UC's big time drop come from?
A look inside the numbers shows that Thompson ran 2.45 seconds faster on the 1,200 leg tha he did at Penn, Aska cut .80 from what she ran at Penn, Devine, who didn't run at the Penn Relays, ran 3.30 seconds faster than UC's 800 leg did at Penn, and Sheppard sliced 5.68 seconds off her split from the Penn Relays. Less then 24 hours earlier, Sheppard smashed the NJ record and World 15 year-old age record by winning the mile on Saturday in 4:33.67,
To put into perspective just how fast Union Catholic's 11:12.20 is, their time would be No. 10 on the NCAA list for this past season. That's right, only 9 NCAA women's teams ran faster in the DMR in 2025 than UC just did!!!
Simply amazing!!!
Ever since narrowly missing the national record in the distance medley relay two months ago, the Union Catholic girls have been aiming to take it down at the New Balance National Championships.
The Vikings didn't just break it on Sunday in Philadelphia, they blew the record apart by dropping a bomb on the Franklin Field oval with an absolute masterpiece, stopping the clock at a mind-boggling 11:12.20!!
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