PHILADELPHIA, USA — Jamaican high schools will start their quest for glory today at the 116th Penn Relays Carnival which gets underway at the refurbished Franklin Field on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in what is predicted to be cool and rainy conditions.

Nearly 40 high school teams and six college teams will take part at the meet, the largest annual meet in the United States, and will mark the 46th year that representatives from Jamaica will be taking part since a Kingston College team first made the trip in 1964.

Patrons and participants will arrive to see a new entrance to the north side of the stadium which has been glassed in after being left open to the elements for decades, while new football locker rooms have been built below the surface.

Seventeen Jamaican girls’ schools will take part today and will compete in the preliminary heats of the 4x100m, 4x400m and 4x800m relays as well as the 400m hurdles which will be run as a final, along with three jumping finals — long, high and triple.

Edwin Allen High, who had an outstanding meet last year with two relay wins, will lead the charge along with a rejuvenated Holmwood Technical squad, while Herbert Morrison High appear a likely dark horse, especially in the 4x100m sprints.

Thirteen Jamaican schools — led by defending champions Vere Technical — will run the short sprint relays. They are Alpha Academy, Camperdown High, Holmwood Technical, William Knibb, Manchester High, Herbert Morrison, Oberlin High, The Queens School, St Elizabeth Technical, St Jago, Edwin Allen High and St Andrew High.

On form Manchester High, whose only win at ‘Penns’ came in 1994, have the fastest time of 45.52 seconds ran at Gibson Relays in February, but with teams allowed to use all their best runners regardless of class, this could mean very little.

Holmwood Technical, who last won the 4x100m in 2006 and left here empty-handed last year, have a best time of 45.66 seconds, but with the likes of Chris-Ann Gordon coming in for the first time here, can’t be overlooked.

The Claude Grant-coached Herbert Morrison won Class Two at ‘Champs’ in 45.68 seconds and were second in Class One in 46.09 seconds, and it is likely Antonique Campbell will join Seidatha Palmer, Kerifa Myers and Remona Burchell in the line-up.

Edwin Allen have a best time of 45.86 seconds, while many-time champions Vere Technical, who have three runners back from last year’s winning team, have run 46.86 seconds.

Among the American teams, Long Beach Poly of California have run 45.92 seconds already, while Serra also of California have run 46.59 seconds.

In the absence of her sister Nikita who won the 400m hurdles last year, Edwin Allen’s Ristananna Tracey will seek to win the one-lap 10-barrier event.

Tracey, who won the CARIFTA Games Under-20 event in the Cayman Islands after placing second at ‘Champs’ and was a finalist at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Italy last year, is ranked second here today behind Amber Allen of Passaic Vo-Tech of New Jersey and will have two other Jamaicans in the race in Manchester High’s Shana-gay Tracey and Alpha Academy’s Monique Lovelock.

With most of the top US schools concentrating on the Distance Medley Relays, it could be a straight fight between the Jamaicans for the 4x800m title and once again it could come down to Edwin Allen, Holmwood and Manchester High.

Long Beach Poly have run 9 :07.55 with a ‘B’ squad, but Edwin Allen lead with 8:55.66 after winning with 8:44.06 here last year.

Two Jamaicans — St Elizabeth Technical’s Rochelle Farquharson and Peter-Gay Reid — will defend individual titles today in the triple and high jumps, respectively.

Farquharson, who has jumped past 13.0m on at least three occasions this year and won at CARIFTA Games and at Girls’ Champs, will start favourite to win again and give Jamaicans their sixth win in seven years after former Vere Technical’s Kimberly Williams’ hat-trick of three straight and St Jago’s Andrea Linton’s win in 2004.

St Jago’s Tanya Bryan will also take part in the triple jump.

Reid, who will be seeking to become only the third person to win the title three times, is ranked a number three behind Emily Kianka of Hopewell Valley, New Jersey and Akela Jones of Springer Memorial in Barbados.

Kimberly Williamson of Edwin Allen, Shaneika Thomas of Vere Technical, Kathy-lee Laidley of St Andrew High and Sedeen Cesvette of Alpha will also take part in the high jump.

After her magnificent 6.43m jump to win Class Two at ‘Champs’, Manchester High’s Chanice Porter has been installed as the favourite to win the long jump.