PHILADELPHIA, United States — Excelsior High won their first Championships of Americas title in nearly 60 years, while Jamaica College atoned for a mishap last year, and Kingston College ended the high school section of the 128th Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Pennsylvania with a stirring win as the three-day event ended on Saturday.

In what was a fitting 60th anniversary of the first team from Jamaica participating in the Penn Relays, the Jamaican teams brought some heat to what was a cold and cloudy day after a sunswept Friday.

Kingston College, the first Jamaican team to participate at the relays in 1964, fittingly won their third straight and fourth overall 4x400m Championships of Americas title.

Excelsior, who started a year later, won their second 4x100m title, while Jamaica College won their second 4x800m title in three years.

There was a tense end to what was a dramatic afternoon as Kingston College and their staff were forced to wait more than 45 minutes after a thrilling win to get the spoils of their victory as a protest held up the proceedings. In the end there was no change to the results.

Kingston College maintained their dominance in the 4x400m as the team of Antonio Forbes, Amal Glasgow, Roshawn Lee and Marcino Rose ran 3:11.86 minutes to snatch victory from Excelsior High, who ran 3:12.94, and Bullis School of Maryland (3:13.10).

With American record holder Quincy Wilson on the anchor leg after his heroics in the first round — which took his team from sixth to win their heat and qualify for the final — it was thought there would be an American winner for the first time since 2007. But that was not to be.

Jamaica College were fifth in 3:15.69, and St Elizabeth Technical ninth in 3:21.01.

Months after winning their first Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Boys’ Athletics Championships Class 1 4x100m title since the previous one in the mid-1970s, Excelsior pulled off a major victory. The team comprised Ryeem Walker, Damon Miller, Malike Nugent and Lennon Green, the same foursome that won the International final last year.

Green came from behind to edge Kingston College’s Marcino Rose, who led for most of the final leg. Excelsior clocked 40.45 seconds to beat the eight-time champions, who ran 40.53, and Herbert Morrison Technical (40.56).

This was Excelsior High’s first win in any Championships of Americas final at the Penn Relays since 1967 when they won the 4×110 yard title.

Head Coach David Riley told the Jamaica Observer their win was not by chance.

“These are the same guys who won the international finals last year with the second fastest time on the day. We just changed up the running order a bit.”

Riley said they had done their homework and knew what they had to do. “It was not just having the fast runners, it was also knowing where to put them and they executed,” he explained.

Archbishop John Caroll of the District of Columbia were the first American team to cross the line, in fourth place, in 40.68.

Calabar High were fifth in 40.76, St Jago High was sixth in 40.92, followed by St George’s College (41.60), West Springfield of Virginia (41.62), and Jamaica College (41.76).

St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) won the international final, running 41.43 with the team of Rajaun Brooks, Enrique Webster, Sawayne Kerr and Tremaine Todd.

William Knibb Memorial were second with 41.45, followed by Wolmer’s Boys’ (41.71) and Cornwall College (42.17).

Queen College of The Bahamas were fifth in 42.33, St Benedict’s of Trinidad and Tobago (42.34), Petersfield High (42.44), Munro College (43.47) and St Vincent Grammar School (43.62) made up the rest of the field.

A well-timed and perfectly executed anchor leg run from Kemarrio Bygrave led Jamaica College to a dramatic win in the 4x800m relay. They clocked 7:42.37 minutes.

Nellie Ambitron, Samuel Creary, Rasheed Pryce and Bygrave made up the Jamaica College team that won their second title in three years.

Getting the baton in third place, the ISSA Class 1 and Carifta Under-20 champion Bygrave methodically stalked the two teams ahead of him and eventually passed St John’s College of the District of Columbia with just over 100 metres to go and then caught the anchor leg runner from the front-running Christian Brothers of Tennessee with about 20 metres remaining before blowing past him to win.

Christian Brothers’ anchor leg runner Kaleb Smith, apparently hearing the approaching Bygrave and hearing the cheering from the mostly Jamaican crowd, turned to see where the Jamaica College runner was and tripped over his own foot. He went sprawling to the track as they eventually finished fourth in 7:47.30.

This was Jamaica College’s second win and first since 2022 after they were disqualified in 2023 for using an ineligible runner in the preliminaries. Bygrave told the Jamaica Observer after the race: “This was redemption, we came for what is ours.”

Kingston College finished sixth in 7:49.65 with the team of Schevorn Wardlow, Jaquan Coke, Nahashon Ruto and Brian Kiprop.