PHILADELPHA, Pa. - The lineup changes, but the record-smashing results never do.
The Union Catholic girls, with three different runners in their lineup from this meet last year, once again leveled up on the biggest stage and blitzed the competiton by throwing down the best performance in meet history in the girls' Distance Medley Championship of America on Friday night at the 130th Penn Relays at historic Franklin Field.
Junior Kayla Devine, junior Sydney Chadwick, freshman Abbey Robisky and junior Paige Sheppard combined to run 11:24.26 to win their second straight title and take down the meet record of 11:24.53 that UC ran last year.
This is the fourth straight wheel that the Vikings have won at Penn, one of the greatest streaks in meet history! They won the 4x800 in 2023 and 2024 and have now have two straight DMR's.
The only other NJ team to go back-to-back in the DMR at Penn is Columbia ( )
Sheppard, who is the only returning runner from last year's lineup and has now run on three winning teams at Penn, said she feels a responsibility to keeping UC's streak alive at Penn.
"Every year we talk about keeping the streak going,'' said Sheppard. "There are runners in college now that started this run at UC and we owe it to them to keep winning.''
Sheppard said she envisioned herself running for UC at the Penn Relays since before she was in high school.
"I remember being in eighth grade and seeing all the titles Union Catholic was winning here and at nationals, and I couldn't wait to be part of this,'' she said. "So it's always special for me to come here and keep the winning tradition going.''
The race started out with Shenendehowa opening a 5.5 second lead after the opening 1,200 leg. Devine, who got the call up to leadoff on in place of junior Sophia Thompson (out with a slight hip issue), ran strong 3:39.18 leg to put UC in third-place. Chadwick then ripped a 54.80, the fastest 400 split of the race, to get right up on Shenendehowa, handing to Robisky a half step off the lead. Robisky then blew the race apart with a 2:09.15 800 carry to give the Vikings an eight-second lead.
A lead that big for Sheppard=game over!!!
There was no way any one was catching Sheppard, who pounded out a 4:42.14 to close it out.
Robisky echoed what Shepppard had said about how much she had been looking forward to running for UC on the national stage.
"This is something I always wanted to be a part of,'' said Robisky. "To be here with my teammates and win at the Penn Relays is a dream come true. All the girls on the team were so welcoming to me, and we've all worked so hard together to win big races like this.''
Devine, who ran the 800 leg on the DMR for UC when they smashed the national record with an 11:12.20 at the New Balance National Championships last June, said it meant a lot to her to earn a spot in the lineup.
"It was inspiring knowing I'm running for not just me, but also for me teammates," Devine said. "Sophia is a really talented runner, so I'm sad for her that she's missing this opportunity. But at the same time, I'm happy I got to step up here and run with these amazing girls."
UC now owns the DMR outdoor national record (11:12.20 at NB Nationals last year), the Penn Relays DMR record (11:24.26), the national indoor record of 11:06.13 that they ran at the New Balance Indoor Nationals in Boston last month, and they have both national 4x800 records and the outdoor national SMR record
At the 2024 New Balance Outdoor Nationals at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, the Vikings won the 4x800 in a national record 8:34.20. This past February at the Millrose Games at the New York City Armory, UC added the 4x800 national indoor record with their winning time of 8:40.04. And earlier this month they ran a national record in the sprint medley of 3:47.35 at the Arcadia Invitational.
What's left for this team to do?!
How about sub 11:00 in the DMR and sub 8:30 in the 4x800!!?
UC has proven that anything is possible with the generational amount of talent that fills this roster.
