Twelve athletes from GDS’ varsity spring track team competed at the 2025 Penn Relays Carnival in Philadelphia, from Thursday, April 25, to Saturday, April 27.
The Penn Relays is one of the oldest and most competitive track and field competitions in the United States. Athletes ranging from middle school to the professional level compete in the various competitions. The meet is internationally recognized, and schools from Jamaica, Canada and the United Kingdom all competed this year.
Sophomore Ava Comly, junior Alexandra Solomon and seniors Sloane Holder and Seva Rustgi competed in the high school girls’ 4×100 at 11:00 a.m. on Friday. The girls finished seventh of the nine teams in their heat and 67th of the 97 teams that competed. They ran a time of 51.49 seconds, beating their time from last year’s Relays by just under a second.
“The same four people that ran the 4×100 last year ran it again this year, so it’s good that we saw improvement,” Solomon said.
“It was definitely on the slower side of what we ran this season, but I think each leg still ran beautifully,” Holder said.
Comly, Solomon, junior Zoe Maas and senior Naomi Borek ran in the high school girls prep school 4×400 that took place on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. The girls finished eighth of 15 teams in the race, finishing with a time of 4:11.37, which beat GDS’ time from last year by almost nine seconds.
“When you walk onto the track and look around, you just know that as a team we’ve worked our tails off,” Holder said. “We’ve built the chemistry as a whole team, and I think it helps to be able to trust your teammates.”
The high school boys’ 4×100 relay team featured juniors Amit Tate, Charlie Brooks and Ucheoma Ukaoma and senior Richard Evans. The race took place on Thursday at 10:20 a.m. The boys finished second of nine teams in their heat and 17th of 101 teams overall. They ran a time of 44.67 seconds, only 1.2 seconds slower than GDS’ 2024 time.
It was the first time participating in the Penn Relays for all of the male competitors, as only seniors raced last year.
“I was very nervous at first, but it kind of transferred to excitement once I stepped onto the track, and I saw that with a lot of my teammates,” Brooks said.
“I think our team did really well,” Tate said. “Our time was close to our season PR, so that was great.”
Tate, Evans, and juniors Ares Osorio and Andrew Leopold ran in the high school boys ‘ 4×400 that took place on Thursday at 3:00 p.m. They finished tenth of 14 teams overall and ran a time of 3:41.93 minutes, which was about 11 seconds slower than GDS’ 2024 time.
“I think it was definitely a bit slower than other meets,” Tate said. “The Penn Relays are just really different from normal, and I think that threw us off.”
Despite the slower times, Tate’s overall outlook was positive. “I think it was really exciting and motivating for future meets,” he said.
GDS will next compete at the ISL/MAC B Championships on Tuesday, May 6.