Soft Pretzel Logic

Instead of feeling a sense of closure, I fear that we'll be fooled again this year in Beijing -- or maybe even at the Penn Relays.

NOTE: There is a brand-new Crunchy Numbers post BELOW this post on the blog's main page. I back-dated Crunchy Numbers so that it would leave this post at the top, which is why you'll see it if you go to the front page of Philly.com right now. But please scroll down for your weekly stats fix and let me know what you think. There are some pretty dramatic changes from last time.

Marion Jones at the 2004 Penn relays (Inquirer file photo)

We interrupt the college basketball stuff to remind you that the Penn Relays are also a big part of this blog, and as such, it is notable that Marion Jones just got sentenced to six months in prison for committing perjury.

I am sure that one of the main themes that will come along today will be that the sentence brings some form of closure to this story, similar to what the Mitchell Report was supposed to do for steroids in baseball.

For example, here's a statement on the news from USA Track and Field President Bill Roe and CEO Craig Masback:

"Today's sentencing concludes a sad series of events. The revelation that one of the sport's biggest stars took performance-enhancing drugs and repeatedly lied about it, in addition to being a party to fraud, has no silver lining. But, it is a vivid morality play that graphically illustrates the wages of cheating in any facet of life, on or off the track. We hope that all Americans will take to heart those lessons.

The sport of track and field in the United States has moved on since Marion Jones competed, reaching even higher levels of success, as a team, than when she was at her peak. No one wanted to see this happen, and we hope that Marion and her family can move on as well."

The thing is, this news doesn't bring me any sense of closure. It actually does just the opposite -- it makes me afraid that we'll be fooled again this year.

In theory, this year's Penn Relays should be one of the biggest ever. The USA vs. the World races will surely have almost all the big stars going to Beijing later this summer, competing in front of the biggest crowds they'll see anywhere before crossing the Pacific.

Given how much the event has grown over the last few years, the Saturday races should be even more electric than 2004, when Jones was here and brought the house down by anchoring the U.S. 4x100-meter relay team.

But now, we are left to only wonder how we would have reacted if we knew then what we know now... and if we've heard that before, it makes things even worse.

So when we go to Franklin Field in a few months, will we be able to believe in what we're watching?

I hope so. I want to believe that this new group of stars, such as Tyson Gay and Allyson Felix, are as clean as we think they are.

I want to enjoy the races as much as I always have, as much as the sunshine and the crowds and the fish and yam combo platters from the vendors on Walnut Street.

Because at its core, isn't the idea of sport really about believing that what we're seeing is real? Okay, I know you'll say I'm being too idealistic, but if the athletes dope and the refs gamble and the coaches shave points, how much farther do we have to go before what we watch is as fake as the scripted voyeurism that gets branded as "reality" television?

Simply put, we need sports to be real. And right now, we need track and field to not betray us again.

This would be a good thing.

Her reputation is gone and now so are Marion Jones' Olympic medals. Jones gave back the five medals she won at the Sydney Olympics on Monday and agreed to forfeit all other results dating back to Sept. 1, 2000, further punishment for her admission that she was a drug cheat.

Also not related to college sports, I hosted the last PhilliesCast of the season today. Go listen to it if you have a few minutes.

Two and a half weeks until A-10 and Big East media days get the College HoopsCast started.

I forgot to mention this in the previous post, but then again, maybe it deserves its own place on here.

You all know that in addition to college football and college basketball, the Penn Relays are an important piece of what I do here on the blog. So I want you to think back with me to the Saturday of the 2004 Relays.

Perfect sunshine, a huge crowd, and an atmosphere with the kind of buzz the USA vs. the World event deserved in an Olympic year. As the public address announcer read the lineup for the the USA's 4x100-meter team, he came to the anchor leg:

"... Marion Jones!"

The crowd let out a short, sharp, deafening roar that remains one of the loudest I've ever heard at Franklin Field.

But they might not have seen that morning's New York Times, which contained the first story linking Jones to the BALCO steroid scandal.

Ever since that day, and that cheer, Jones has run away from years of allegations that her dazzling performance at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 was steroid-enhanced.

Yesterday, as Frank Fitzpatrick writes on the front page of this morning's Inquirer, Jones finally admitted the truth.

Today, the career of one of the most celebrated sprinters in American history lies in ruins. Like Justin Gatlin, another star of the Franklin Field track who received our collective presumption of innocence, we once again have to consider the integrity of what we've seen with our own eyes.

Marion Jones betrayed her sport. And in so doing, she betrayed us -- and I mean us in the literal sense, right here in Philadelphia -- as well.

Wow, that was fun.

I know the Penn Relays was probably the third most important sports event going on in Philadelphia this weekend, but the action and the atmosphere proved once again why it really is one of the most fun weekends every year.

Am I tired? Yeah, I am. But every moment of it was worth doing. And I can't help thinking that as great as this year's Relays were, next year's version -- being in an Olympic year -- will just be off the charts.

So that's it from me. But before I go put the blog back in storage for a while, I'd like to thank all of you readers out there for actually paying attention to this thing.

One of the most gratifying things that can happen to a journalist is finding out that people are reading his or her work. Over these three days, the blog has averaged more than 1,500 pageviews per day. The only comparable day over this thing's entire history was Selection Sunday. So I feel truly honored to have this kind of attention.

With that, I sign off for now.

After trying for two days, I finally caught up with Texas sprinter Jamaal Charles. He ran in the 100-meter sprint Championship of America today after qualifying yesterday (despite an apparent, but uncalled, false start by the guy who won).

Some of you out there might know Charles for a different reason, though. He's a stud running back for the Longhorns' football team. I talked to him about what it's like to play two sports. Click on the photo above to watch.

UPDATE: Was told that Charles isn't actually dating Sanya Richards. His now-former teammate, cornerback Aaron Ross, is. Oops.

Just before the high school boys' 4x400-meter Championship of America race, I wondered aloud why so many of the Jamaican fans were still around, the USA vs. the World races being long done.

Well, that question got answered rather quickly. There were three powerhouse Jamaican schools in the race: St. Jago, Kingston College and Calabar.

But they were all beaten by Long Beach Poly in what was by far the loudest high school race I've ever seen at Franklin Field. Despite the fact that Yohan Blake was running the anchor for St. Jago, Long Beach Poly's Bryshon Nellum never let him get by and held on for a truly thrilling win.

Nellum's 45.4-second anchor leg was the fifth-fastest split ever in Penn Relays history; the team's winning time of 3:09.89 was the second-fastest ever.

St. Jago came in secend in 3:10.42, a difference of 0.53 seconds.

I shot some video of the fans during the anchor leg. Watch it by clicking on the above photo.

A day after breaking the record in the 4x1500-meter relay, the Michigan women went out today and made history again. They set a new Penn Relays and overall collegiate record in the 4x800m race, winning in 8:18.78. Tennessee had set the previous record, 8:20.22, in 1984.

The Lady Vols finished second today, in 8:27.45.

Anna Willard, who ran the third leg today and yesterday, was named the Oustanding Women's College Athlete of the Meet.

So you'll remember there were a bunch of Masters races yesterday. Well, they saved the best one for today: the 75-and-older 100-meter dash. Here are a few photos:

Edward Cox is the guy in the middle.

So you've probably figured out by now that the Relays ended at around 6 p.m. Because of the rain and the swarms of people around Franklin Field, I decided to get out and write from home. I still have a bunch of stuff to post, so stick around.

For the fans at Franklin Field who come here more than once weekend each year, a few names in the USA vs. the World distance medley relay probably sounded familiar.

Two former Penn runners competed in the event: 2004 graduate Sam Burley (left) ran the third (800-meter) leg for USA Red, and 2006 graduate Courtney Jaworski (right) ran the third leg for the All Stars.

After the race, they both spoke about what it meant to come back to the Penn Relays wearing different jerseys. Click on the photos above to watch the videos.

The Zimbabwe 4x100-meter relay team is the fist African team ever to compete in this event at the Penn Relays.

Click here to watch them talk about the experience.

I'm off to the infield for a while. Back later.

UPDATE: Fixed, with thanks to commenter KB for pointing out the mistake

With seven of eight teams in the high school boys' 4x100-meter Championship of America hailing from Jamaica, the many Jamaican fans in the stands at Franklin Field had a great time watching their teams.

St. Jago won the race, with star Yohan Blake anchoring. The team was presented with its Championship of America plaque by another track star -- Carl Lewis. You might have heard of him.

Click on the photo above to watch them.

Hatboro-Horsham's Joe Berry won the high school boys' pole vault with a Penn Relays record of 4.96 meters (16 feet, 3 1/4 inches). He tried to clear five meters even on his final vault but couldn't quite.

On the women's side, USA Red -- with Allyson Felix running second and Monique Henderson running third -- won in a rout. They finished in 3:24.70, with Jamaica second in 3:29.84.

On the men's side, USA Red and USA Blue finished 1-2, pulling the track equivalent of a boxout against an attempted surge by Jamaica over the last half of the anchor leg.

Both US teams were stacked. USA Red (always the stronger of the two) had 2004 4x400-meter gold medalist Derrick Brew running second and LaShawn Merritt running third. USA Blue had former Penn Relays stars Wallace Spearman (Arkansas) second and Kerron Clement (Florida) third, with Bershawn Jackson anchoring.

USA Red's winning time was 2:59.18. USA Blue finished in 3:00.04. Jamaica was third in 3:00.44.

ESPN analyst Lewis Johnson does his best Dick Vitale impression and gets the Jamaican fans to make some noise.

It looks like this:

Yep, I've used that headline before. They swept both genders.

USA Red won the 4x100 women's relay, with Lauryn Williams (not surprisingly) blowing out the field to finish things off in 42.87 seconds. Jamaica finished second in 43.55, a hair ahead of USA Blue with 43.58.

On the men's side, USA Red won in 38.35, with Tyson Gay opening and 2004 gold medalist in the 200m Sean Crawford anchoring. Jamaica was second and USA Blue finished third.

We interrupt the order I was going to do things in for the marquee races of the Penn Relays: the USA vs. the World 4x100-meter sprints.

Yeah, the 4x400 high school races are the meat and potatoes of the thing. But this is where the speed and the stars and the best athletes are. ESPN2 is on the air now so watch it live, then check back here for my view of things.

It's not always easy to find familiar people at the Penn Relays, with more than 19,000 runners competing this year. But you probably know -- or at least you've heard -- Ron Lopresti and Burt Ritchie. They're the public address announcers at Franklin Field.

I shot a video of Lopresti (left) and Ritchie (right) calling a 4x400-meter high school boys' relays race. To watch it, click on the photo above.

Jared Dixon of Fiorello H. LaGuardia Arts High School in Manhattan goes up for a high jump attempt.

I am definitely not a morning person. But when it's this nice out, with the sun shining and some of the runners out in the infield getting warmed up, I can't help being excited. It's the sports equivalent of the moment when an orchestra is tuning up onstage in front of the audience.

Joe Juliano leads the Inquirer's coverage with a recap of Texas' victory in the Distance Medley Relay. Juliano also previews today's USA vs. the World races with a profile of Tyson Gay, who wants to challenge 100-meter sprint world record-holder Asafa Powell on the big stage.

Jeff McLane recaps the college women's races, led by Michigan's great win in the 4x1500m relay. Nice to see how much it means to the Wolverines.

Sam Carchidi writes a great column about the Masters runners.

Juliano, McLane and Keith Pompey's notebook is led by Coatesville's win in the high school boys' DMR.

The Inquirer also has two good photo slideshows.

In the Daily News, Ted Silary recaps the day for Chestnut Hill Academy shot putter Wayne Crawford, who finished in second behind another football player. He'll have quite the decision to make when he gets to North Carolina in the fall. Steve King writes a preview of USA vs. the World and throws in a few other tidbids.

The same is true for Frank Litsky of the New York Times, whose USA vs. the World preview highlights the 10-year-long rise to prominence of Tyson Gay.

In the Washington Post, Camille Powell tells us something I didn't know: that the Championship of America plaque weighs 30 pounds. Carl Little writes that Matt Centrowitz's record-setting time in the high school boys' mile is nothing special.

Two non-Relays stories. First, six Penn State football players, including Anthony Scirotto and Justin King, were charged yesterday after a brawl they were involved in four weeks ago. Frank Fitzpatrick and Bernard Fernandez have the details. Second, Dick Jerardi's story on St. Joe's guard Jawan Carter's transfer to Delaware.

I'll close the day's posts with one last photo, which I consider to be something of a personal accomplishment. If you've ever been to Franklin Field at night, you know it's pretty dark and thus very hard to get good pictures in. I managed to get this shot of a handoff during the high school girls' 4x400-meter Championship of America race, and I think it's pretty good.

Talk to you all again in the morning.

... there are still records falling.

Matt Centrowitz of Broadneck (Maryland) High School just set the record in the boys' high school mile with a winning time of 4:08.38.

Announced as 39,166.

Dan Gelston of the AP filed this preview of the USA vs. the World races.

He also filed this recap of Texas' win in the DMR, which includes a few elements of the above story at the end.

Part of the deal with being able to shoot video here is that I can't shoot races themselves. I can shoot fans, though. So for the high school girls 4x100-meter Championship of America race, I put the camera on the Jamaican fans the whole time.

Check it out by clicking on the photo.

Three shots from the Men's Masters 70+ race.

Wayne Bennett of Dallas Masters (No. 2, in case you didn't figure it out) was the winner, posting a time of 13.98 seconds.

I have a couple of movies to process, so I'm going to go do that and I'll be back later.

(Meanwhile, we're only on college men's 4x400-meter heats. We really are two and a half hours behind.)

... inclduing the Special Olympics 4x100-meter relay, as Shane Hudson crosses the finish line first. The winning time was 49.04 seconds.

Nothing about their performance seemed disabled to me, that's for sure.

With Penn at the near side, a shot of how the transfer in the shuttle hurdles works. Once the first runner crosses the line, the other gets going. There's no actual transfer of an object.

Rhode Island is on the near side; I forget what the other school is.

Cornell's Ray Taylor gets airborne during the long jump.

Hi to all who've come here through the front page of Philly.com. I've been down on the field for a while and I'm headed back there in a moment. But in the meantime, here's the audio of the USA vs. the World press conference from earlier this afternoon. It featured some of the top names who will race in tomorrow's USA vs. the World races at the Penn Relays, including:

-- Allyson Felix, USA
-- Lauryn Williams, USA
-- Sherone Simpson, Jamaica
-- Tyson Gay, USA
-- Wallace Spearmon, USA

A couple big results of note while the blog server was going haywire:

-- Eleanor Roosevelt of Prince George's County, Md., came back to beat Jamaican power Holmwood Tech for the the girls' 4x800-meter relay Championship of America in a thrilling finish. Roosevelt's anchor chased down Holmwood Tech's anchor (I can't find their names at the moment) in the final homestretch and snatched the victory just by the length of her head at the finish line.

-- Later, in the college women's 4x1500-meter relay, powerhouse (and I do mean powerhouse) Michigan broke Villanova's famed record of 17:18.10, winning the Championship of America in 17:15.62. The ovation they got at the end and the lap of honor they ran after the race was fully deserved.

Sorry. I was out taking photos. Including these four from the Masters 60+ 4x100-meter relay.

The woman in the bottom right picture was part of a team of runners all aged 70 or more.

So you probably noticed that the blog crashed for a while. Sorry. It happens sometimes.

Normal service will resume shortly.

Just found out that this website has streaming footage of races after they take place. So if you want to see a particular team and you know what heat it ran in, have at it.

(Just don't abandon my blog for it!)

Yep, that's one of the teams running in the 4x100-meter relay at the moment. They came in 2nd to St. George's of Jamaica, 43.43 seconds to the winning 42.28 seconds.

I actually walked by them earlier, and the school's logo looks almost exactly like the World Baseball Classic logo.

Oh, wait, there's a good reason for that at the bottom of this page.

Is Pat Gillick in the house?

It looks something like this:

Just got an email from Joe Juliano that 1999 was the last year there was a lightning delay. He also sent along the Inquirer's recap of that day. Here's Ron Reid's story:

A LIGHT SHOW
STORMS AND STARS AT RELAYS

Apr 24, 1999

By Ron Reid, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Four women from Texas blazed around Franklin Field to a meet record yesterday in the 105th Penn Relays , where Georgetown made the men's distance medley a drama for about 90 seconds and TCU fell by the competitive wayside.

Bad weather also got into the act, dousing athletes, officials and those of the 31,109 spectators who couldn't find cover with a steady rain that got intense at times before lightning suspended competition twice for a total of 90 minutes and forced the rescheduling of some events for today.

Herman Mancini, 87, the clerk of course emeritus who has officiated the last 61 Penn Relays , said the suspensions were a Penn Relays first.

A nicer time was produced by the Longhorns' Kim McGruder, Nanceen Perry, LaKiesha White and LaKeisha Backus, who graced their victory in the 4x100-meter relay with superb baton passing and superior speed.

When Backus shot across the finish line, 10 meters in front of Pete-Gaye Dowdie of Louisiana State, the timers caught Texas in 43.33 seconds. LSU was second in 44.27.

The Longhorns' time wiped out the former Penn Relays standard of 43.42, set by LSU in 1998, and obviously added another chapter to the ongoing rivalry between the two teams, each of whom will contend for the NCAA outdoor championship in June.

``We came here hoping to do that,'' McGruder said of the record run. ``We knew if we came in ready to compete, we knew we were capable of breaking a record. ''

The LSU women won't go home empty-handed. Loren Leverton, Selena Lewis, April Sams and Philadelphia's Joyce Bates saw to that with a 54.01-second victory in the women's shuttle hurdles.

Bates, the NCAA indoor hurdles champion who prepped at Simon Gratz High School, nailed the victory with a strong closing leg.

``I knew we weren't first when I was coming out,'' Bates said, ``but I just said to myself: `I'm stronger than them. ' I focused on my rhythm. I couldn't tell where I was . . . because there was so much water in my eyes. I was just pounding forward and hoping I would get through the line first. ''

High drama of a longer duration came in the men's distance medley relay during the brief stint in which Georgetown anchorman John Jordan seemed headed toward a colossal upset of Arkansas' Seneca Lassiter.

Jordan had taken the baton 15 meters behind Lassiter, one of the nation's best middle-distance stars, at the final exchange and trailed by as much as 25 meters through the early stages of the 1,600-meter leg.

But Jordan closed the distance with a courageous pace helped enormously by Lassiter. For reasons known only to his psyche, the Razorbacks senior eased off in the final 400 meters to save himself, as he explained later, for today's 4x800 and 4xmile relays .

The result was Jordan pulling to within one long stride of his Razorbacks rival before Lassiter knew what was up.

Once he realized the situation, coming out of the first turn in the final 400 meters, Lassiter hit the throttle and ran away from Jordan like a startled pickpocket. He boosted his lead to 20 meters before he came out of the final turn and won the race by 15 meters.

Lassiter ran a 4:02.5 split to give Arkansas a victory in 9:32.81, the slowest time in 17 years but a happy one for the Hogs, who wanted to make amends for losing the DMR to Michigan last year.

Arkansas got good early work ahead of Lassiter. Mike Power, an Australian, covered the opening 1,200 lead leg in 2:54.7. Ryan Stanley blasted through the 400-meter second leg in 46.2, and James Karanu, a Kenyan, had a 1:49.4 split for the 800-meter leg that preceded Lassiter's lope.

``He had it all set up for himself,'' said Jordan, reflecting on the apparent guile of his Arkansas rival. ``I knew once he took it out it would be tough to catch him because I used up so much [energy] trying to gain ground on him. ''

Jordan was timed in 4:03.8, but the Hoyas were beaten for second place by Southern Methodist, who got a spectacular 3:57.2 anchor leg from Clyde Colenso.

``I guess I relaxed too much on that second 800,'' said Lassiter. ``I didn't realize how much I'd slowed down but I didn't nothing of it. I knew I had all the energy in the world. ''

So did the sprinters of TCU, but their control was a big problem. The pre-meet favorite in the men's 4x100-meter relay , the Flying Frogs suffered a highly uncharacteristic bad handoff in their qualifying heat. Jarmiene Holloway, running second, barely got the baton to Lindel Frater within the passing zone. The error cost dearly as the Frogs finished 15th with a time of 41.11 seconds. Three weeks ago, their victory in the Texas Relays was timed in 38.64.

TCU's pratfall left Clemson the favorite in today's final off a 39.98 qualifying mark. No other team broke 40 seconds. Clemson also ran the fastest time in the 4x200 qualifying heats at 1:22.66. Auburn was second in 1:22.76, the only other team to break 1:23.

The women's 4x1,500-meter relay went to Wisconsin's Stephanie Pesch, Bethany Brewster, Janet Westphal and Jenelle Deatherage.

The Badgers put it out of reach on the third leg, shortly after Westphal took the lead away from Kelly Brady of Wake Forest and moved 15 meters ahead of the pack. Deatherage gave a little ground on the final leg but held a 10-meter margin of victory at the finish line.

Wisconsin's winning time of 17:37.15 was the second slowest in the 11-year history of the event, but the race was decidedly more painful for Villanova.

Krissy Jost, in what was only her second race of the outdoor season, showed she has yet to recover from the foot injury that cost her all of last season and indoor competition in 1999.

Jost, the 1997 NCAA 3,000-meter champion, simply wasn't ready to race. Nova fell 15 seconds behind after the first leg, and Carmen Douma, Kristen Nicollini and Carrie Goddard couldn't overcome the deficit.

The Wildcats finished sixth in 17:51.24 and left first-year coach Marcus O'Sullivan wondering whom to run today in the women's distance medley.

Brad Snyder of South Carolina won the shot for the second straight year when he muscled the 16-pound iron ball 64 feet, 5 1/4 inches. Snyder won at 65-9 3/4 last year.

So you might recall that I wrote yesterday about Kimberly Williams, the triple-jumper from Vere Tech of Jamaica.

After I did that, word got out that her jump wouldn't stand as the record because it was wind-assisted.

Well, it turns out that the supposed winning jump wasn't even her longest effort. Her actual longest was 43 feet, 10 inches (13.36 meters), and it wasn't wind assisted. So the record is indeed hers.

And for that good reason, Kimberly Williams is the High School Girls Athlete of the Meet this year.

And we're back in action, with the PIAA Middle School Girls 4x100-meter relay just done and the Camden Diocese Boys' 4x100m relay about to start.

No word about what time races will resume.

The debate in the press room is over whether the combination of this delay and the last one (which went almost an hour and a half) is the longest in Penn Relays history.

Joe Juliano of the Inquirer says it's "the only delay" he's ever seen, and he's been here a while. I overheard Frank Litsky of the New York Times involved in a discussion going back a couple decades... I'll be nice and not say which ones.

More lightning in the area, even though it isn't raining at the moment.

Racing resumes in half an hour.

The Royal Grammar School of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, is currently running in the 4x800-meter relay. It's the first time ever a British school is competing in this event.

They're wearing white uniforms with red and blue trim (the guy at the far left in the picture). Somehow, that doesn't make sense to me...

Photo by Flickr user Akuppa.

Two and a half minutes ahead of the scheduled 11:10 a.m. restart, we're back underway with Event 84: High School Boys 4x800-Meter Large Schools. And there are 18 schools in this race, including three from Jamaica and five from the Pennsylvania suburbs of Philly.

The crowd is pretty big, probably as many people here already as there were all of yesterday, but they're all under the overhang. Which is one of the really great things about Franklin Field, both because of the protection from the rain (in theory, though often not in practice) and because of the way it bounces the noise around.

If, like me, you've got nothing else to do, check out the movie I shot of the rain here by clicking on the picture above.

And here's some more reading material. If you speak French, check out a nice story on the history and culture of the Penn Relays that ran today in Le Monde, one of the biggest newspapers (by circulation and influence, though not at all by size of the page) in France.

If you don't, here's a story in English from the Jamaica Observer (hat tip to The Buzz) on Jamaican high school star Yohan Blake. He is quite possibly the next Asafa Powell.

Just heard that races will resume at 11:10.

Just had some thunder and lightning. I know my mother's reading this, and I can assure her that I'm fine.

Though some of the floodlights just went out.

The bigger problem is that if I make a run for the press room, I have to go from my covered seat out into the rain to get there.

Hmmm. Never mind, the call's been made. Everyone off the track.

I'm gonna make a run for it.

UPDATE: Having successfully made the run, word is we break for half an hour. I shot some rain footage and I'm going to work on that for a bit.

Screen capture from the results website:

I was going to shoot some video of the rain but it's not coming down as hard anymore.

... two things that keep going no matter the weather. My seat is under cover by only a few inches, so I'm able to write with a plastic bag over the top of my laptop screen.

Let's have a look at this morning's headlines:

Joe Juliano recaps the women's distance medley relay, in which Villanova had a late lead but got caught by Tennessee right at the end. Mike Kern does too. I would have blogged about this but I was working on the Public and Catholic League videos at the time.

I told you Sam Carchidi would have a piece about the Virginia Tech track team, and here it is.

Keith Pompey recaps a big day for Methacton's Ryann Krais, highlighted by victory in the 400-meter hurdles.

Jeff McLane was out at the field, where Texas' Michelle Carter made her father proud by winning the shot put.

And all three of the above writers compiled the notebook, featuring Abilene Christian's Nicodemus Naimadu's record-tying third straight win in the steeplechase.

Daily News Penn State beat writer Bernard Fernandez checks in on the team's NFL draft prospects, especially Tony Hunt, and notes that Joe Paterno won't be paying attention. Good for him. (I have to, as it's part of my job.)

Temple will rename its baseball field in honor of longtime former coach James "Skip" Wilson this weekend.

And finally, if I may take a bit of a tangent (the rain does this to one's mind): Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber dropped a hint that Philadelphia is very much in the mix for an expansion team and soon. Take that as a clue about where this blog might go if it comes...

I could sure use one if you do. It is pouring out and it looks like it's going to keep raining for a while.

But everyone here thinks the first race is going off on time. We'll see.

I think that's it for the night. There are a few more long-distance races to be run, but there isn't really much news- (or humor-) worthy.

Talk to you all again in the morning.

At the water pit corner of the steeplechase track, of course.

23,996. Just announced.

Distance stuff to come -- and the Jamaican media are already complaining that it's getting cold.

The Inquirer has posted a slideshow of the day's action that you can see by clicking here.

Engineering & Science won the girls' 4x400-meter Public League relay with a time of 4:00.77. After the race, I talked to three member of the team (the fourth wasn't interested; so be it) about what it meant to them. Click on the photo above to watch the video.

St. Hubert's won the Catholic League girls' 4x400-meter relay with a time of 4:08.81. After the race, I talked to the team about what it means to win at the Penn Relays. Click on the photo above to watch the video.

The starter fires his gun to get the Prep School Girls 4x400-meter relay (in which my high school competed) underway.

I'm off to do some video stuff for the Catholic and Public League races. Back later.

Famed Long Beach Poly (of the same named town in California) just beat the stuffing out of perennial Jamaican favorite St. Jago in the girls' 4x400-meter relay, 3:44.17 to 3:47.15.

If you've heard of Long Beach Poly before, it's probably because of the team's trademark high socks. Well, the socks aren't here this year. I think it's the second straight year that's been the case.

But a strong team is certainly present.

A fan celebrates the announcement that Vere Tech's Kimberly Williams won the high school girls' triple jump with a mark of 12.91 meters (42 feet, 14 inches). It's a new Penn Relays record and the third straight year Williams has won the event. She jumped 12.47m (40 feet, 11 inches) each of the last two years.

Speaking of Jamaica, Edwin Allen just blew everyone else away with a 4x400m time of 3:41.67. Amoy Blake ran the anchor leg in a blistering 54.10.

The second- and third-place teams were no slouch either. Easton (Pa.) finished in 3:51.77 and Uniondale (N.Y.) finished in 3:51.80.

Dan Gelston of the Associated Press has filed a nice story on the Virginia Tech track team.

If you're interested in specific race results, there's finally a working up-to-date system (there have been computer glitches with the interface people are supposed to use). Click here to check it out. I've also been told that the system includes photo-finish pictures from the finish line camera.

And if there's a specific school you want to know about, let me know by posting a comment or emailing me.

This is just the side of the stadium with the finish line on it, but it gives you a decent idea to start from of how many people are here. It's probably about the same as it was for Thursday last year.

A few odds and ends I forgot to mention earlier...

-- I left out a story in the Inquirer's business section by Bob Fernandez about a small company in Royersford, Montgomery County, that made a device which automatically returns shot puts to the throwing area.

-- I heard from a reasonably good source that the closed-down food stalls I mentioned earlier have opened.

Penn's Laurie McDaniel takes the baton heading into the anchor leg of the 4x100-meter relay this morning.

A pole vaulter clears the bar. I have no idea who it is, but I got the timing right on the picture.

A few fans in the stands take pictures of a runner they know.

... I think this banner is to the Penn Relays.

... or maybe not.

The fans here today have been pretty quiet so far, but two things have gotten them to pay attention and make some noise. First was when the Virginia Tech 4x100-meter relay team was announced earlier in the day, and the Inquirer's Sam Carchidi is working on a story about them.

The other was just now, when the Mergenthaler High School (from Baltimore) girls' 4x400m team ran the first sub-four-minute relay of the day.

As for why I haven't been posting much lately, my computer's running real slow. I'm working on some photos that I'll have up shortly.

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So I went out to Walnut Street for lunch, as I usually do on the first day of the Relays. I took the video camera with me and shot some footage of the food stalls and craft stands.

What I didn't capture, though, was the fact that all but one of the food stalls had been closed by the city health inspectors.

(Yes, I got lunch from the one that was open.)

I was tempted to go find Milton Street or Jannie Blackwell's phone numbers -- just kidding. But the stall owners definitely thought they were being treated harshly.

As with last time, click on the picture above to watch the video.

LSU won the first college women's 4x100-meter heat in 44.93 seconds, almost a second and a half faster than second-place Pittsburgh.

Forget about the Vine Street Expressway, or the Conshohocken Curve. The biggest traffic jam in the region this weekend is in the Penn Relays paddock. The administrators who move the runners through have a harder job than any traffic cop I've ever seen.

I shot some video of all the commotion a few minutes ago. Check it out by clicking on the photo above.

Let it be said that a few seconds after 10:30 a.m., it started raining.

That's how you really know the Penn Relays are underway.

In the first high school girls' 400-meter hurdles race of the day, Methacton High School's Ryann Krais just knocked off a bunch of highly-touted Jamaicans to win in 58.93 seconds. That's the fast time in the United States this year.

Three weeks ago today, Steve Hardings posted this comment:

How does one Blog about the Penn Relays?

The guy in lane 1 is ahead... no wait, its the guy in lane 2... etc. Curious how this will play out on line. Unlike a "game" a race is just that. I dont know what you plan on doing besides reporting on results.

I suppose it would be the same if you blogged about a stock car race. Maybe not. At least there are crashes!!!

Maybe I am just so down on the PennRelays...i have had some bad experiences over the years with that event. Its always a good weekend to get out of town

Well, we're about to find out. We're just a few minutes seconds away from the first 400-meter hurdles heat of this 113th Penn Relays Carnival, and I must admit that of all the things I cover, this is my favorite event on the Philadelphia sports calendar.

This region's sports fans are second to none, as we all know. The electricity of an Eagles game or a Flyers playoff game is unrivaled. But there's something really special about being in Franklin Field with a big crowd that has come here from all over the country to watch a few athletes they know and a few thousand they've never heard of.

Over the course of the next three days, I'll bring you all kinds of features and race updates. Not just text, but also photos, video and audio. Above all, I want it to be fun, and I want you all to enjoy it as much as I do. So let me know what you want to hear about, either by posting a comment or sending me an email.

Oh, and that first race I mentioned just ended. South Carolina's Krystal Cantey, a native of Winslow Township, N.J., finished second in the heat to UTech (of Jamaica)'s Kaliese Spencer.

Now for this morning's headlines.

Start in the Inquirer, with Joe Juliano's fans' guide. The biggest tidbid in there is that stud Texas running back Jamaal Charles will be running for the Longhorns.

Jeff McLane recaps the heptathlon and decathlon, both won by Penn State athletes. All the expected puns are included in the story. Joe Juliano profiles the highly touted Florida State team, which is the reigning NCAA champion but has never won a Championship of America.

Juliano also notes the stars -- and they are stars -- who will be in the USA vs. the World competition, while Rick O'Brien explains why Penn's Shani Boston didn't compete in the Heptathlon.

In the Daily News, Mike Kern has a great story on Kortney Clemons, an Iraq war veteran who will run in the open 100-meter sprint on a prosthetic leg. Ted Silary profiles Simon Gratz's Khaliff Featherstone, who is apparently quite good at running the track and running his mouth.

And a few hoops and football stories to close things out. Dana Pennett O'Neil takes a shot at the NCAA for its soon-to-be-adopted ban on text messaging. Joe Santoloquito hails the prowess of high school phenom Tyreke Evans, whose family says he "will go to college." The Inquirer's Frank Fitzpatrick sizes up the draft chances for Penn State offensive tackle Levi Brown, and Coaches vs. Cancer will host a big high school hoops tournament this weekend at Temple.

If so, I want to hear from you, and here's why.

Kristen Graham and I are going to be liveblogging the Penn Relays, including photos and video interviews, starting Thursday morning. I want to know what teams you want to read about, and we'll go out and try to feature them.

Post comments or email me. High schools, college, and of course the pros, you name it.

A few leftover from Wednesday's Penn Relays press conference that didn't make it into yesterday's Daily News or today's Inquirer...

For recreational purposes only, watch out for Florida State's 4x100m team. Walter Dix, who won the 100m and 200m NCAA championships for the Seminoles two years ago as a freshman, was originally scheduled to run the 100m sprint with some teammates, but now they'll run the relay instead. The full Seminoles squad took home the NCAA title last year.

Steve King's story in yesterday's Daily News highlighted something that I wanted to write about, so credit to him for getting to it first: the power of the Southeastern Conference.

The SEC has a consistent track record of putting its top runners into the U.S. Olympic team, including former Tennessee star Justin Gatlin, Louisiana State's Xavier Carter and Florida's Kerron Clement. Both have run at the Penn Relays a number of times, especially Gatlin. It will be quite something to not have Gatlin in attendance this time after his doping suspension last year.

"I think tradition -- it goes much farther than just recent," South Carolina coach Curtis Frye said. "You've got to go back to Willie Gault at Tennessee, Tyrone Kemp and Mark Everett at Florida, Anita Howard. They were all great athletes and all Olympians that attracted that atmosphere... In turn, that attracts kids from around the country who want to go where there are Olympians."

Gault is one of this year's inductees into the Penn Relays Wall of Fame, as Keith Pompey reports in this morning's Inquirer.

Frye also gets credit for the quote of the day, a response to a question about one of his star freshmen: Willingboro Township, N.J. native Crystal Canty.

"Eastern kids get to the Penn Relays and the animal comes out," Frye said. "Our team is full of kids from the east, and they always have great days at Penn Relays."

(And as an aside, yes, that's the same hometown as NBC track analyst Carol Lewis, who also competed at the Penn Relays for Willingboro High School. Which is a pretty good pedigree.)

In the USA vs. the World races, there will be some big stars. Penn Relays director Dave Johnson (whose job is endowed by the late former Inquirer columnist Frank Dolson) said he "presumes" the Dominican Republic's 4x400 team will likely feature 2004 400m gold medalist Félix Sánchez. Great Britain, which won the 4x100m gold in Athens, will be in that race this year at the Relays.

Johnson also said he has "seen reports" have stated that Jamaican superstar Asafa Powell (the guy in the picture), who is the current world record holder in the 100m sprint, will come to Franklin Field once again, but that he won't run the 100m sprint. He ran that race last year and the Jamaican fans just about blew the upper deck off the place. If he runs this year, you will want to be there because whatever he does will get the most attention of any race Saturday.