PHILADELPHIA, USA — There will be optimism on today’s second day of the 127th Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field in Philadelphia with a number of strong Jamaican teams lined up in the high school boys’ Championships of Americas relays after Thursday’s bittersweet first day.

At least eight schools — led by Kingston College and St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) — will seek to sweep the relays.

Six Jamaican schools are in the Championships of Americas 4x100m final, seven in the 4x100m international final, five in the 4x400m finals and two in the 4x800m final.

Jamaican high school athletes won four field events titles Thursday, led by Jamaica College’s Garbriel Lim, who created history by being the first Jamaican to win the javelin; Kobe Lawrence retained his shot put title, while Demario Prince of St Jago won the long jump and Trevon Hamer of Jamaica College took the triple jump.

Today, Camperdown High are in contention to retain their 4x100m title and Kingston College the 4x400m but there will be new champions in the 4x800m after Jamaica College were disqualified after they were found to have used an ineligible runner.

Nicholas Power, who transferred from Calabar High to Jamaica College this year and who was ineligible for the ISSA Champs, was a part of the team that won their heat in 7:49.29 minutes.

The Penn Relays rules states that athletes who are ineligible for their national or State Championships are ineligible to compete at the Penn Relays.

Kingston College, who ran 7:54.79 and STETHS who ran 7:55.96 seconds, are seeking to be the eighth-straight Jamaican school to win the event here.

Seton Hall Prep of West Orange, New Jersey, leads the qualifiers with 7:49.99 followed by Chatham, also of New Jersey and St John’s College of Washington, DC.

To add insult to injury for Jamaica College, their third-leg runner in the 4x400m heats, fell about 30 metres from the change-over and killed their hopes of advancing to the final.

Camperdown High, who were surprise winners last year, had the eighth best time of 42.03 seconds in the 4x100m yesterday while STETHS’ 41.32 seconds was the best among Jamaicans and the same as Florida’s IMG Academy.

Kingston College, Wolmer’s Boys’, Jamaica College, St Jago and defending champions Camperdown High will also contest the 4x100m COA final.

St George’s College, Calabar High, Excelsior High, Herbert Morrison Technical, St Catherine High, Edwin Allen and William Knibb Memorial will contest the International finals for the next nine overseas schools that did not make the COA final.

St Jago High, STETHS, Edwin Allen, Kingston College and Calabar High will line up in the 4x400m final while Kingston College and STETHS will be the standard bearers in the 4x800m decider.

Lim became the first Jamaican to win the high school boys’ javelin title at the Penn Relays when he threw 61.24m to win the event where he was the only Jamaican taking part.

He joins Holmwood Technical’s Taneisha Blair, who won the girls event in 2006.

Lawrence threw 20.93m, the joint eithth best mark, ever, to win the shot put after he was second last year as St Jago’s Shaiquan Dunn was third with 18.07m and William Knibb’s Chavez Grey seventh with 16.57m.

Prince battled Camren Williams of Archbishop John Carroll of Washington, DC before winning the long jump with 7.42m (-0.4m/s) in the final round with Kingston College’s Nathan Wade third with 7.22m (0.7m/s).

Hamer was the only athlete in the triple jump to go over 15.00m with 15.17m (1.6m/s) to win the Penn Relays watch, the same mark as Munro College’s Tevin Dunn in 2017, the shortest winning mark since 2009.

Kingston College’s Javar Thomas was third with 14.81m (1.10m/s), Cornwall College’s Kesean Rhooms eighth with 13.62m (-0.2m/s) and his teammate Obrien Bowen was 10th with a best of 13.52m (0.9m/s).

The Kingston College pair of Isiah Patrick and Aaron McKenzie were second and third in the high jump respectively, both clearing 1.98m, the same mark as the winner, Ja’Mari Manson of Bloomfield, Connecticut.

Jamaica College’s Champs winner Raquil Broderick was third in the discus throw with 61.92m; Clarendon College’s Ricardo Hayles was fifth with 58.90m, Yekeni Bowen of Petersfield was sixth with 56.31m and Delano Lawrence of Calabar High was 12th with 49.89m.