Penn Relays: Smalls dazzles on Day 1

(Published April 24)
PHILADELPHIA -- Turn the corner, walk down the stairwell through the dim corridor, and see Kamice Smalls tucked away, lying outside the doorway, sweating, huffing, smiling.
Strange place for a winner to be, but the Camden senior, in her fourth year competing at the Penn Relays and her third time Thursday, can take refuge in her day pretty much anywhere.
Smalls could have laid down at Franklin Field earlier, say during the final leg of the South Jersey Large-School 4x400 when her Lady Panthers trailed the Woodrow Wilson anchor by about 15 meters, but instead decided to win, moving her relay to a state-best 3:53.88.
She didn't catch her split time, but she caught the leader.
"I was determined," Smalls said. "I wasn't going to let anybody beat us. We were focused. We wanted this."
By zooming her team to one of the 12 qualifying times Thursday, Smalls extended her Penn Relays experience, and that of teammates Jamie Jones, Shaquanda Gainey and Miriam Boyd, to Saturday when they'll compete in the Philadelphia Area 4x400.
Smalls said she "pumped my arms, and drove my legs" to merely shadow the leader with 150 meters left. Only then did she make her move.
"I didn't want to go all hard out and then die, so I stayed with her," she said.
The outcome was never in question to coach Avis Satterfield.
"I knew she would come though. I felt confident," Satterfield said. "They were really excited for the 4x400."
Smalls kicked off the high-school portion of the three-day meet with a fourth-place finish in the 400 Hurdles Championship, earning a personal-best 1:02.4 and a medal. Woodrow Wilson senior Samantha Sharper took sixth in 1:02.53.
Camden's relay team of Jones, Smalls, Boyd and Assante Johnson took ninth overall in the 4x100 Small Schools meet, finishing its heat second in 48.24.
Millville's 4x400 grouped itself in the day's fastest heat, cashing in its 3:54.13 time for fourth overall in the international heat despite running the state's second-best time this year.
If Millville is geographically eligible for the Philadelphia area race, something coach Marissa Harris is looking into, the team of Nyrae Newman, Alyssa Barrow, Brooke Kott and Britney Kott will likely join Woodrow Wilson (3:54.21) and Camden on the stripe Saturday.
But Millville needed two big performances to get that far. The Kott twins spun the last two laps in 1:53.4 with Britney anchoring in a team-best 56.5 – and still fell 15 seconds behind race winner Elearnor Roosevelt (3:38.4).
"I was thinking that's the best 4x400 I've seen in my life," Harris said.
Britney Kott nearly lost something before taking the baton – her voice. Even though the crowd of 23,657 drowns out the loudest cries, that doesn't stop the junior from performing her obligation as a teammate: cheering on Newman and Barrow.
As for her twin Brooke? Telepathically rooting will have to do.
"I feel bad because the third leg is my sister but once she goes it's like I have to try to save my energy to run my race," Britney Kott said. "I would cheer for her if I could, but I would feel so tired."
Having already qualified as one of the region's top distance-medley teams, the Lenape squad of seniors Moira Cunningham, Brianna Beddall , Lindsey Walsh and sophomore Caitlin Orr placed seventh at the Distance Medley Championship of America in 12:07.21, a school record.
Orr ran the Penn Relays last year and the 1,600 dozens of times, but the sophomore said she felt some extra pressure anchoring a relay for her senior-laden team.
"In the individual race if I do bad I'm just disappointing myself, but if I disappoint them as the anchor, especially since they're all seniors, that would be horrible," Orr said. "I just couldn't let them down."
Fellow sophomore, Kingsway's Chelsea Ley, ran the 3,000 Championship better than last year, breaking out of a box midway through to momentarily lead before falling back to ninth in a still-sizzling 9:54.75.