The University of Technology (UTech) men’s sprinters created local history last weekend at the 120th Penn Relays Carnival in Philadelphia when they won two titles, the first time any team from Jamaica had managed that at one staging of the event at Franklin Field.

The Paul Francis-coached team successfully defended their men’s College Championships of Americas 4x100m title then added the 4x200m, while the women’s team won the Championships of Americas sprint medley relay crown as well.

While the high school teams were enjoying one of their best Penn Relays in years with five Championships of Americas titles and six individual titles, the Jamaican colleges had the best ever showing, prompting Francis to tell the Jamaica Observer that they are proving they can be a viable alternative to going overseas to pursue education while continuing their track careers.

Francis said: “We felt we had a fairly good meet at (Penn Relays), the university left with three Championships of Americas plaques; the men won two, the 4x100m and 4x200m and the women won the sprint medley relays; in addition we won the men’s individual 100m and had a number of other very good results.”

Chrisdale McCarthy’s personal best 13.38 seconds in the college women’s 100m hurdles was also another positive, he pointed out.

“What it means for the programme,” Francis said, “is that it shows what people have been seeing for a long time that there is a viable option for student athleticism here in Jamaica and it was good for people who have lived overseas to see our universities beating the Americans, the best names in the US college system.”

The UTech team of Andrew Fisher, Julian Forte, Adulphus Nevers and Tyquendo Tracey ran 38.71 seconds to defend their title in the 4x100m, beating many-time champions LSU, who recorded 38.83 seconds, while UWI, Mona, were eighth in 40.47 seconds with the team of Bernardo Brady, Jason Hylton, Kavean Smith and Dwayne Ferguson.

Forte then teamed up with Guirab Dantago, Andrew Fisher and Ronald Levy to win the 4x200m in 1 minute 20.07 seconds to beat Texas A&M and LSU.

The women’s sprint medley team of Natasha Morrison and Elaine Thompson running the 200m legs, Janieve Russell on the 400m leg and Simoya Campbell on the 800m leg, clocked 3 minutes 47.14 seconds to finish ahead of Kentucky and Penn State University.

GC Foster failed to make it to the women’s Championship of Americas 4x100m final, but made up by winning the college women’s 4x100m final in 44.53 seconds with the team of Keja Christie, Samatha Curtis, Audra Segree and Kedisha Dallas.

UTech were also third in the Championships of Americas women’s 4x100m final in 43.66 seconds behind Texas A&M, who won for the sixth straight year running 43.11 seconds, and University of Oregon 43.33 second, while UTech also made it to the Championships of Americas finals in the men’s and women’s 4x400m events.

In the individual event, Nevers became the fifth Jamaican to win the college men’s 100m when he ran 10.25 seconds to beat Cameron Burrell of Houston (10.32 seconds), and North Carolina A&T’s Desmond Lawrence (10.39 seconds).