PHILADELPHIA, USA — The University of Technology (UTech) will start their quest to retain their women’s mile relay title as the 116th running of the Penn Relays Carnival kick off in Philadelphia this morning.

After creating history by becoming the first Jamaican female college team to win a Championships of America event here last year, the UTech team will be seeking to add to that this year when they take part in a number of relays and individual events, starting with the heats of the 4x400m and 4x100m relays this morning.

A UTech team ran 3:30.61 last year to be the first from the island to win in this category following on another UTech men’s team led by Asafa Powell that won the 4x200m, while World and Olympic 100m champion and Jamaican national record holder Shelly-Ann Fraser won the 100m title in 2008 in 11.86 seconds, then a personal best.

Three Jamaican College — including GC Foster and Knox Community College — are down to participate in the three-day event which will end Saturday afternoon.

Today, the women will take part in the preliminary heats of the 4x100m and 4x400m relays as well as the 400m hurdles where Andrea Reid of UTech will match strides with a field that will include Andrea Sutherland of Texas A&M, former Alpha Academy athlete Claudia Calder, now Hampton University, where she is trained by Raymond ‘KC’ Graham.

Former Holmwood Technical athlete Salcia Slack will take part in the College long jump where she is the top-ranked jumper.