Penn Relays

With an eye toward the 2012 London Games, eight athletes who have won Olympic gold medals are among the runners entered for the 13th edition of the USA vs. the World events at the Penn Relays, USA Track & Field announced Tuesday. Five gold medalists scheduled to run - Lashawn Merritt, Angelo Taylor, Justin Gatlin, Sanya Richards-Ross, and Allyson Felix - will represent the United States, while three - Nesta Carter, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Sherrone Simpson - will compete for Jamaica.

It's nearly a unanimous feeling among the world-class athletes who will compete in Saturday's "USA vs. the World" races that the Penn Relays is a special place to be every year. But in 2012, with the Olympics arriving in a little more than three months, the runners are getting together to practice as a relay team and develop some chemistry among themselves. "It's definitely time to line up and put our best team together and get the stick around," Carmelita Jeter, the 100-meter gold medalist in last year's World Track and Field Championships, said Friday.

They call it "the world's oldest, largest and best relay meet," and to runners everywhere, that's not hyperbole, it's received truth. High schools, colleges, clubs send their best to be tested against the best. As in every previous year, the 94th running of the Penn Relays last week was a spotlight for Olympians and near-greats, as well as a moment in the sun for future champions and nowhere-near-greats.

Over its previous 113 years, the Penn Relays has been the place to watch young people who have gone on to win gold medals at the Olympics - and to watch gold medalists return to Franklin Field to thrill with their world-class ability. But there's a far greater connection of the annual carnival with the quadrennial worldwide competition than simply showcasing future and current stars. "It's probably the only meet in the United States that gets you ready for something like the Olympics," said Angelo Taylor, a 2000 Olympic gold medalist in the 400-meter hurdles who has been part of winning collegiate and U.S. relay teams at the carnival.

Usain Bolt, the holder of world records in the 100 and 200 meters and the most recognizable name in track and field, will compete at the Penn Relays as part of the USA vs. the World event April 24, USA Track and Field announced Thursday. Bolt, of Jamaica, is scheduled to compete in the men's 4x100 relay. He established world records in the 100 (9.58 seconds) and the 200 (19.19) at last summer's World Outdoor Championships in Berlin. Bolt won three gold medals in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics, setting world records of 9.69 in the 100 and 19.30 in the 200 and being part of a world-record time of 37.10 in the 4x100.

This is the year you've been waiting for at the Penn Relays. No, that doesn't mean Usain Bolt is making a return visit. He isn't. But what we do mean is: The South Street Bridge is back in operation after a two-year rebuilding project, making it easier to get over the Schuylkill by foot and by car (well, definitely easier by foot) to Franklin Field. The bridge reopening also means there is access directly on South Street to the Hollenback Center stairs to the lower street level that leads to the fields where the javelin, shot put, discus, and hammer are being contested.

It's more track and field over a three-day period than most people will see in a lifetime. It's thousands of athletes ranging in age from 9 to 75-plus running around and around Franklin Field before a crowd that is guaranteed to yell "wooooo" every five minutes or so. It's the 114th edition of what the folks around here modestly call the nation's oldest, largest and best track and field meet. Of course, it's the Penn Relays. Here are some notable things to know: Duel renewed.

Here is a look at some of the high school stars scheduled to compete at the Penn Relays: Pennsylvania Abington junior Leah Nugent, Academy of Notre Dame senior Ann Kelly, and Penn Wood senior Felicia Custis will open high school racing at the 116th annual Penn Relays Thursday at 10:20 a.m. in the girls' 400-meter hurdles championship. Nugent is the reigning PIAA Class AAA state champion in the 300 outdoor hurdles. The boys' mile championship at 6:10 p.m. Friday will feature three top local seniors - Tom Kehl of Father Judge; Vince Perozze of Perkiomen Valley; and Tom Mallon, a Stanford recruit from Central Bucks South who is the reigning two-time PIAA Class AAA state champion in the outdoor half mile.

Do the moral hypocrites who govern intercollegiate athletics think they really did something good when they refused to permit the Penn Relays to give high school participants any kind of awards this year? Or are they just plain stupid? Probably both. They have insisted on stretching the letter of a new National Collegiate Athletic Association rule to a point of absurdity, and it's hard to believe that they could be so stiff-necked. The rule is aimed at preventing a university from gaining any unfair advantage in recruiting high school athletes through an athletic event.

S.J. Track & Field Championships Preview Groups 1 and 2 At Buena, Friday at 4 p.m. and Saturday at 10 a.m.   Athletes to Watch Woodbury junior Anthony Averett. He went 25 feet, 21/2 inches in the long jump at the Woodbury Relays and took second in the event at the Penn Relays. Woodbury senior Darrell Bush. He was second in the Meet of Champions in the 400 meters last year in 46.95. Bridgeton junior Braheme Days.

Holy Family's Stephanie McNesby was named the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference player of the year in women's lacrosse on Monday, in a vote by the league's head coaches. The junior from Archbishop Ryan scored 48 goals and helped the Tigers (12-4, 11-1) to their first CACC regular-season title. Wilmington's Jackie Trainer, a graduate of Council Rock and Monmouth University, was voted CACC coach of the year by her peers. Joining McNesby on the first team are Kaitlyn Hall (Wilmington)

Down on his luck and drained of confidence, Chestnut Hill distance runner Dustin Wilson replenished both during the weekend at the 118th Penn Relays. Wilson, a senior, entered Saturday's 3,000-meter high school boys' championship race seeded 12th in a field of 22. It was a race in which he had experienced success as a sophomore, when he clocked a personal record of 8 minutes, 30.96 seconds for seventh place. Wilson called it the "race of his life. " He rode that confidence into the same event as a junior - until an unpredictable collapse.

The race required that Eric Futch exert himself for 400 meters of hurdling, against a field that included sprinters from Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago, not to mention some of the best from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. Curiously, it wasn't anything Futch did with his legs that tipped off Penn Wood coach Lenny Jordan that his guy had the race in the bag. "I can usually tell when Eric's ready to go because his shoulders shrug," Jordan said. "When he hit hurdle number seven, his shoulders shrugged and I knew he was going to put it on G-blast.

The challenge is daunting for the Penn State men's 4x800-meter relay team whenever it competes at the Penn Relays. The Nittany Lions set the carnival record for the 4x800 in 1985 - the oldest record on the books - and the current runners know that all too well. "We know that time by heart," fifth-year senior Owen Dawson said of the mark, 7 minutes, 11.17 seconds. "It's been hanging over our heads for a while. " Penn State didn't break the record Saturday, but it headed back to Happy Valley happy.

It was just a few moments after Sanya Richards-Ross crossed the finish line first in the final USA vs. the World race at the Penn Relays that the public-address announcer at Franklin Field summed up the cloudy and cold afternoon a bit haughtily, but honestly. "That's USA six, the World nothing," he said. "Yes, I heard that," Richards-Ross said Saturday after the U.S. women won the 4x400-meter relay to complete a clean sweep of the events featuring athletes from 21 countries, many of whom have competed in the Olympics and the World Track and Field Championships.

Nobody hit Doc Patton like a linebacker on a blind-side blitz. Nobody dropped the baton. Nobody ran out of the exchange lane, threw a shoe, pulled a hamstring, twisted an ankle, lost a contact lens, or overslept and showed up late. For the USA Red 4x100-meter men's relay team, that made for a successful Saturday at the Penn Relays. In other news, Patton, Mike Rodgers, Justin Gatlin, and Walter Dix also won their U.S. vs. the World race in a blistering time of 38.40 seconds.

Bill Collins took the baton, made the turn, and raced for home as hundreds of spectators rose to their feet in appreciation of the Fast Old Guy. That's one way to look at Collins. He's 61. He's fast. He's perhaps the greatest Masters athlete of all time. Collins anchored the Houston Elite 4x100-meter relay team to victory in the Masters 60-and-older competition on Friday at the Penn Relays. He also won the 100 dash in 11.98 seconds. But the truly inspiring thing about Collins isn't his age or speed or garage full of trophies and plaques and medals.