PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Sometimes great performances seemingly come out of nowhere, when you least expect it.
That's what happened to Union Catholic's quartet of freshman Elijah Jones, junior Shahid Stevens, junior Jalele Williams, and sophomore Tolu Ogunnaike when they shocked themselves by exceeding their expecations by running one of the fastest times of the day in the 4x400-meter relay at Saturday's 130th Penn Relays.
Running in one of the fastest heats of the day against some loaded teams, UC more than held their own by burning a 3:15.98!!!!
That placed the Vikings third in their heat, was the 11th fastest time among more than 500 teams that competed, just missing the 9-team Championship of America race by two spots and .50. UC's 3:15.98 was also the fastest among all NJ teams.
The two teams that UC was chasing in their heat were Archbishop Carroll of D.C., who wn the heat in 3:10.37, and runner-up Jamaica College (3:14.04).
"We were just hoping to run around 3:18,'' said Williams, one of the biggest star in the state who finished third in the long jump on Friday. "I can't believe what we just did.''
How did it happen?
Jones, a freshman, led off in 51.53, Stevens then dropped a 48.04, Williams followed with a 47.67, and Ogunnaike anchored in 48.75.
While having that great competition always helps run faster, it was more that that propelled the Vikings to this unexpected performance.
"We've been working really hard and everything just came together at the right time,'' said Williams. "We were hungry to go out and show everyone what we can do, and we all came up with our best races. We knew this kind of performance could come at some time this season, it just happened sooner than we thought. Now that we've run this time already, we are going after that school record and some big titles the rest of the season.''
The 4x400 was the start of busy day for Jones, Stevens, Williams and Ogunnaike, who will return to the track later today to run in the 4x100 Northeast championship race.
