Penn Relays: Winslow 4x400 wins then bows with bronze - Day 3

(Pub April 27)
Winslow Wins: The team of Darin Washington, Barry Cephas, Gerald Stephens-Holland and Davis McNeil won the 4x400 South Jersey Large School Championship in a year-best 3:17.98, holding off Delsea, the 2007 winner.

Big Penn: An estimated crowd of 49,831 attended the final day of the 114th Annual Penn Relays, the largest turnout this weekend and the second largest ever.

Quote: "I'm not saying it's not scary, because you have all these people watching you," McNeil said. But you got to remember to keep your mind straight, and focus on the race and give it everything you got."

PHILADELPHIA – Winslow Township won't say that missing the cut for the 4x400 Championship of America, arguably the biggest high-school race at the Penn Relays, was beneficial, but things sure went its way in the 4x400 Philadelphia Area Championship Saturday.
Having beaten Delsea by nearly six seconds in a year-best 3:17.78 to win the 4x400 South Jersey Large School Championship, Winslow Township soon discovered its time was two tenths of a second too slow to qualify for the eight-team race, sending the Eagles to scrap in the 12-team consolation race.
And scrap the Eagles' team of Darin Washington, Barry Cephas, Gerald Stephens-Holland and Davis McNeil did, placing third in 3:22.59
Representing the top seed, Washington, a senior, started off on the inside lane and then – with the bang of a gun – restarted after the fight for inside position left two runners facedown.
It hurt Washington to race having had strained his right calf during his previous race, but he welcomed a new start after being boxed in the moment he left the stripe.
And he wasn't about to make the same mistake with 49,831 fanatics watching.
"I knew I had to get out much faster," the senior said.
This time Washington launched off the line, grabbing the lead after 100 meters and then slipping to second before his handoff with Cephas .
"The restart to me was a godsend," coach Larry Hickman said. "On the second start Darin really got out and did what he was supposed to do."
Before running out of luck, the Eagles lucked out once more when the frontrunner from Father Judge (Pa.) dropped off along the homestretch to pick up his dropped baton, a mistake that Cephas – who ran a team-quick 48.0 leg in the preliminary – pounced on, dusting him before the stunned crowd.
The Eagles' foursome lost to Engineering & Science (3:22.24) and North Penn (3:22.40), suffering their first head-to-head defeat since last spring's Meet of Champions, but kept their unblemished record against state schools intact. Delsea finished sixth in 3:26.17.
Sterling's 4x400 team of Chris Ward, Greg Taylor, Robert Friedman and Matt Long outlasted Burlington Township (3:29.23), Holy Cross (3:30.06) and others to win the South Jersey Small School Championship in 3:27.85, but did not advance.
Throughout the final day of the Penn Relays, many teams slowed even when stacked among better competition, a phenomenon that Hickman chalks up to fatigue and chilly, breezy weather.
West Deptford pole vaulter Dan Batdorf only had to look at the flags to see a bad omen.
The flags atop Franklin Field rippled in one direction, the towel wrapped around the standard pole blew another and the end result was Batdorf tying for sixth with a jump of 14-3.25.
"You can feel it when you run," said the senior who arched 15-6 indoors. "Sometimes you'll be running and you feel a gust of wind and it completely ruins the jump."
Egg Harbor Township senior Stevenson Cajuste started the high-school portion of the meet by placing seventh in the 400-meter Hurdles Championship in a personal-best 54.94.
A week after jumping 7-0, Timber Creek high jumper Montez Blair came back to Earth, clearing 6-7.75, good for a medal and a share of fourth pace.
The field wasn't kind to Cherokee senior Chris Steliga either. After advancing to the championship round with a jump of 22-8, the long jumper fouled three times, finishing eighth.
Steliga tried to make adjustments in between his botched attempts,
"After my first [foul] I was thinking 'No big deal, it happens,'" Steliga said, "but on the second one, I was off by like three feet and I was like 'Oh, shoot' so I had to move my steps up. The last one I fouled by a quarter of an inch."
Seeded second in the 4x800 Championship of America after running a school-record 7:51.07, Washington Township's team of Steve Morrone, Nick Krauss, Tim Carey and Xavier Fraction had trouble finding their legs, finishing in 8:06.95.
Although most of the girl events concluded Friday, the 4x400 Philadelphia Area Championship was saved for Saturday. After winning the South Jersey Large School Championship Thursday, the Camden relay team of Jamie Jones, Miriam Boyd, Shaquanda Gainey and Kamice Smalls finished fourth in 3:57.67. Woodrow Wilson placed sixth in 4:01.11.