Paige Sheppard Anchors Union Catholic To High School Record 3:47.35 After Falling Short A Year Ago; Rosary, Wilson (Long Beach) Go 1-2 In 4x200

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

Sam Givner, Jeff Castle photos

RESULTS/VIDEOS | INTERVIEWS

ARCADIA, Calif. - Already high school record holders in four other relay events, Union Catholic NJ added a fifth to its name in the girls 1,600-meter sprint medley relay during Friday night's Burning Batons at the Arcadia Invitational.

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Sydney Chadwick, Abriyah Thompson, Abigail Robisky and Paige Sheppard put together a 3 minute, 47.35 second performance to take down Rush-Henrietta NY's best by three-tenths of a second, highlighting day one action.

Union Catholic was dominant. Wilson (Long Beach) CA finished almost 17 seconds behind in second in 4:04.06.

Chadwick and Thomspon combined to run their 200 splits in 49.45 seconds for the first 400 of the race and Robisky split a 53.82 on her 400 leg to give Sheppard an eight-second advantage going into the 800 leg.

A year ago, Chadwick and Sheppard were members of last year's sprint medley relay that fell short of the Rush-Henrietta  record 3:47.65, clocking 3:48.83. That was extra motivation for this year's meet.

“I knew that I had a job to do," Sheppard said. "It was just finishing strong...falling short last year gave us the motivation to see what we could do today."

Friday's night sprint medley relay goes alongside Union Catholic's high school records in both the indoor and outdoor 4x800 and distance medley relays, which have all been run within the last two years.

Sheppard, already the most successful distance runner in school history individually, has been on all five of those relays that have broken a high school record.

"Every team is different," Sheppard said. "Even if it's the same line-up of girls, you're still a different racer on the day. You never know what's going to happen. You just have to show with the same mentality of, 'I'm not just performing for myself, I'm performing for three other people.'"

California’s Rosary, Wilson Go 1-2 Against Bullis In 4x200

It took Rosary and Wilson (Long Beach) to become the second and third California teams ever to run faster than 1:35 to defeat powerhouse Bullis in the girls 4x200.

Rosary, who featured Tra’Via Flournoy, Pfeiffer Lee, Maliayh Collins and Justine Wilson, clocked a US#1 1:34.29 and Wilson (Long Beach) ran a US#2 1:34.52 to finish 1-2 over Bullis, who returned to Arcadia for the first time since 2019.

“We got to represent for California,” Wilson said. “(Bullis) came out here, but right now this is our territory, and we got to defend at home. And we know what we have to do and we did it.”

Oregon Relays 300 hurdles champion Saniah Varnado was 100 meters away from delivering a monumental win for Wilson (Long Beach) but Wilson found another gear with less than 50 meters to go and stormed right past Varnado to carry Rosary across the line first.

Bullis finished third in a US#6 1:35.47, almost a second behind second-place Wilson.

In other relay races, Reese Holley closed the final leg of the girls 4x800 in 2:08.68 to help carry JSerra Catholic CA to second consecutive title in a US#1 8:50.32, taking down the meet record of 8:53.48.

Mireya Hardman and Maya Pawlowicz kept JSerra in the top three the first two legs before handing off to Chloe Elbaz, who blitzed a 59.92 on her first lap of her leg to set Holley up with the lead at the final exchange.

Nike Indoor Nationals mile champion Braelyn Combe, who was three seconds behind Holley on the final exchange, anchored in 2:03.71 to guide Santiago to second in a US#2 8:50.97, moving to No. 2 all-time in meet history.

Claremont put together a US#3 performance of 8:56.56 to finish third. Grace Smith, who ran on the California state distance medley relay team with Santiago’s Combe at Nike Indoor Nationals, anchored in 2:10.79.

Lone Peak UT, featuring Maya Bybee, Hailey Atwater, Paytin Rohantinsky and Brielle Nilsson, became just the third girls 4x1600 relay team in meet history to break 20 minutes, running a US#3 19:57.70. Bybee, Atwater and Nilsson were members of the 4xMile national championship team at New Balance Nationals Indoor.

Poly (Long Beach) CA’s Faith Magee, Aniyah Brooks, Aliyah Stokes and Laila Kirk put together a 1:44.17 performance to win the girls 800 sprint medley relay, three seconds faster than their season’s best from the Redondo Track Festival in March.

Alexandra Austin, Claris Monarrez, Heaven DeLoney and Genesis Roussel delivered Centennial NV its first win the in the girls 4x100 shuttle hurdles relay title since 2022, running 1:00.47 to win by over two seconds.

Elliana Patterson of Christian CA won the lone individual seeded race of the night in the girls 3,200 in 10:22.44.