PHILADELPHIA – As the 130th running of the historic Penn Relays reaches its climax on Saturday at Franklin Field, Jamaica’s elite high school track and field programs have already turned in a series of standout performances, headlined by an unprecedented run from Jamaica College (JC).
The Kingston-based institution, nicknamed the Dark Blues, has already made meet history as the only Jamaican high school to secure spots in both the prestigious boys’ 4x100m and 4x800m Championship of America finals, with a chance to add a third final berth in the 4x400m relay on Saturday itself. The 4x400m preliminary rounds are scheduled for Saturday morning, with the final to follow later that day.
Long before the relay finals get underway, JC’s athletes already began bringing home titles and breaking records on the opening day of competition. On Friday, Michael-Andre Edwards delivered a historic performance in the boys’ triple jump, shattering a 10-year-old meet record to successfully defend his 2024 title. Edwards’ best jump of 16.29 meters with a 0.8m/s wind broke the previous mark of 16.01m set by O’Brien Wasom in 2016. He first notched a 16.26m jump in the third round, before improving his own new record on his next attempt. Edwards, who entered the competition targeting the record, recorded multiple jumps over 16.12m across the event, and extended Jamaica’s consecutive winning streak in the event to five years. Even runner-up Myles Nesmeth, the American indoor record holder from Memphis Central High in Tennessee, surpassed the old record with a jump of 16.18m, but fell short of Edwards’ historic mark. Multiple other Jamaican athletes placed in the event, with KC’s Rekelme Hunter taking third in 15.41m.
JC also picked up a second individual title on Friday, thanks to a personal best performance from discus thrower Joseph Salmon. After taking second place at the 2024 Penn Relays, Salmon climbed to the top of the podium this year with a throw of 63.55m – the ninth-best mark in the 130-year history of the high school boys’ discus competition at the meet. The win adds to Salmon’s already impressive 2025 campaign, which includes titles at both the ISSA Boys’ Championships and the Carifta Games Under-20 division. Calabar’s Kamari Kennedy took second place with 61.19m, while Munro College’s Rajeem Streete rounded out the top three with 60.25m.
Jamaican success extended beyond JC on Friday, too. Edwin Allen High’s Addison James delivered a massive personal best to retain his boys’ javelin title, throwing 72.44m – the third-longest mark in meet history – to beat his own 2024 winning mark of 65.98m. The Dominican Under-20 national record holder outperformed every other competitor by a wide margin to take the win.
In relay qualifying, JC’s 4x100m quartet of Malique Dennis, Nathaniel Martin, Elijah Smeikle and Kai Kelly turned in the fastest qualifying time of 40.11 seconds to lead all competitors into the Championship of America final. Virginia’s St James Academy clocked the second-fastest time of 40.24 seconds. Seven other Jamaican boys’ teams joined JC in qualifying for the Championship of America final: Kingston College (KC) with 40.26 seconds, Edwin Allen at 40.37, Excelsior High at 40.54, St Jago High at 40.73, Petersfield High at 41.19, St Mary High at 41.21, and Wolmer’s Boys’ at 41.24. Wolmer’s edged out William Knibb Memorial, who also clocked 41.24 seconds, leaving the latter to compete in the International final, which will feature six Jamaican squads overall.
In the boys’ 4x800m Championship of America qualifying, three-time winners JC once again led the field, clocking 7:43.56 to take the top qualifying spot as the only Jamaican school to advance to the final. The squad of Rasheed Pryce, Carlos Brison Caines, Sekani Brown and Shemar Green won their qualifying heat, and will enter Saturday’s final targeting their second title in three years, having taken top honors at the 2024 Penn Relays. A number of other Jamaican programs competed in qualifying but fell short of advancing to the Championship of America final, including KC, who finished 14th overall with a time of 7:51.88, Alphansus Davis High in 22nd at 7:55.07, and St Elizabeth Technical High in 24th at 7:55.43.
In other individual events on Friday, several Jamaican athletes earned top-three finishes. KC’s Nkosana Johnson took third place in the boys’ shot put with a throw of 19.15m, while St Elizabeth Technical’s Santino Distin cleared a season-best 2.06m to take third in the high jump. JC’s Jaivar Cato placed fourth in the long jump with a 7.11m leap.