Last week, members of the Deerfield Track & Field team traveled to Philadelphia, PA to compete in the annual Penn Relays, the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States hosted by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field. The event welcomed more than 22,000 entries of which half were high school students.
The girls track and field 4 x 400m relay team took to the track on Thursday afternoon to race against seven other independent schools including; Success Academy (NY), Loomis (CT), HCZ Promise (NY), Walsingham (VA), Stuart Country Day (NJ), Hopkins School (CT), and Cristo Rey (PA).
The team finished in fifth place with a time of 4:19.25. Senior Nailah Barnes (1:05.52) was the lead off runner, she handed the baton to newcomer Sami Dulam (1:07.72) who passed the baton to Victoria Patterson ’20 (1:03.78) and senior Lily Louis (1:02.75) anchored the team.
On Saturday morning in perfect conditions, the boys 4 x 400M relay team stepped onto the track to race against five other independent schools including; Loomis (CT), Success Academy (NY), Hopkins School (CT), Masters School (NY), and Cristo Rey (PA).
The team’s experience grew with each leg of the race, tenth grader Alton Machen (52.42) opened the race for the Big Green. He handed the baton to junior Greg Berces (52.12) and two seniors finished the race, Peter Pulai (55.95) and Nate Batista (50.65). Nate completed his 400M leg of the race in the second fastest time within the race helping the Big Green to a third place finish (3:31.12).
Deerfield track and field will return to action this Saturday, May 5th in a home tri-meet with Choate and St. Paul’s at 3:30pm.
Congratulations to all the runners!