PHILADELPHIA, USA — If last Saturday morning’s anchor leg in the preliminary heats of the high school boys’ 4x400m events at the 116th Penn Relays Carnival at Franklin Field in Philadelphia is Dexter McKenzie’s final high school track event, he will go to the University of Nebraska with high expectations.

The Munro College upper sixth-former brought the almost full stadium to its feet with an outstanding sub-47 seconds leg to lead Munro to victory and a place in the final later that afternoon.

Even more significantly, he made the impressive Trinidadian 400m hurdler Jehue Gordon, a finalist at last year’s IAAF World Championships in Berlin, look ordinary after the latter entered the meet with a lot of hype.

McKenzie admitted to being intimidated by Gordon’s resume going into the race, but said once he got on the track he “just felt calm and told myself to just go out there and do my best”.

Gordon has set the track and field world buzzing this season with a string of impressive performances and there are debates about whether he will enter the professional ranks or attend college.

The Queens College student won the CARIFTA Under-20 400m hurdles event over the Easter weekend with a brilliant 49.76 seconds, the 13th best time in the world this year among all 400m hurdles runners, and has a personal best of 48.26 set in Berlin last year.

After skipping the 400m hurdles on Saturday morning as many thought he had nothing to gain by winning there, he got the baton right behind McKenzie, but easily cruised past the former Mannings student and took over the lead.

He held the lead for about 250m until they got to the final curve when McKenzie etched his names in the annals of the storied Penn Relays.

Appearing to shift at least two gears, McKenzie — who made his name as a long jumper — challenged Gordon going up to his shoulder, then moving past him.

Gordon attempted to respond but failed and cheered on by the massive Jamaican presence in the stands, McKenzie went on to win in the fastest time, 3 minutes 12.54 seconds, timed at 46.9 seconds on the anchor leg, while Gordon was timed at 46.8 seconds.

A cramp suffered in the race, however, kept McKenzie out of the final, where Munro finished a disappointing fourth.

Heroic anchor legs are nothing new for McKenzie, who battled Holmwood Technical in a driving rainstorm at the Milo Western Relays at GC Foster in February and last year at the Penn Relays when he beat Calabar’s Ramone McKenzie to the line for second behind St Jago High, only for his team to be later disqualified.

In an interview with the Observer in the Philadelphia International airport Tuesday morning as the team prepared to head back home, McKenzie — who has five CXC passes and two Units of CAPE, along with a SAT score of 1,390 — says he is looking forward to the challenges that college will bring.

Asked why he chose Nebraska, which is known for its brutal winters, McKenzie said he wanted “a new environment, something I don’t know yet”, but also pointed out that during the recruitment process, “Nebraska came straight forward, no jokes.”

The 19 year-old McKenzie said he hoped he would get the chance to concentrate on the long jump where he has a personal best 7.34m achieved while retaining his title at the Milo Western Relays in February, but said he was under no illusions as his exploits in the Mile Relay means he will be asked to perform there as well.

While hesitating to disclose his best time over the 400m flat, saying only, “it is some where around 50 seconds”, he was forthright with his best time in the 200m, 21.6 seconds achieved at the ISSA/ GraceKennedy Boys Champs this year. He was fifth in the event at Champs.

McKenzie, who will follow a lot of great Jamaican athletes to Nebraska, including Merlene Ottey, Keith Gardner and Ray Harvey, said the highlight of his career at Champs came this year when he was presented with the captain’s title and led them to third place in the 4x400m race — his first medal in the event at Champs.

McKenzie says he will study engineering while at the University of Nebraska.