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Penn Relays: United States wins three relays at the USA vs. the World competition

The U.S team won two events on the men's side and the sprint medley relay for women. Its athletes enjoyed the cheers and chants of the crowd of 48,195 at Franklin Field.

Team USA Blue's Champ Page, left, and Team USA Red's Manteo Mitchell run in the USA vs. the World men's sprint medley during the 125th annual Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia on Saturday, April 27, 2019. Kenya won the event, with USA Red finished second and USA Blue finishing fourth.
Team USA Blue's Champ Page, left, and Team USA Red's Manteo Mitchell run in the USA vs. the World men's sprint medley during the 125th annual Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia on Saturday, April 27, 2019. Kenya won the event, with USA Red finished second and USA Blue finishing fourth.Read moreTim Tai / Staff Photographer

Chris Belcher, who made his debut Saturday in the annual USA vs. the World competition at the Penn Relays, got an immediate taste of the bedlam that the Franklin Field crowd can generate whenever athletes from the United States and Jamaica take the track.

It was the very first leg of the very first race, the men’s 4x100, and the 48,195 folks inside the ancient stadium were ready.

“When I was getting in the blocks, I was kind of on the Jamaican side and they said my name and Team USA Red and they started booing me a little bit,” said Belcher, a former star at North Carolina A&T. “So I just gave them a look and said, ‘We’ve got something for you guys.’

“After we won, I was on the other side where all the USA fans were, and they were just going crazy, screaming ‘USA,’ and they were kind of just kind of rubbing it in Jamaica’s face a little bit. But that’s the love of the competition.”

With Belcher leading off and veteran Mike Rodgers on the anchor leg, USA Red rolled to victory in 38.80 seconds, beginning the 20th annual competition amid strong, swirling winds that saw the United States split the six relays.

Team USA salvaged its only win on the women’s side in the last event, when Raevyn Rogers matched her scintillating 400-meter anchor leg of a year ago to overtake Jamaica for the sprint medley crown in 1 minute, 37.87 seconds and give the chanters of “U-S-A, U-S-A!” something to go home by.

“I feel like there was a little bit more pressure to defend,” said Rogers, who anchored her team to a world record last year at Penn, “but I feel like the momentum throughout the day, and seeing how it was kind of going back and forth between Jamaica and the USA, we kind of wanted to do what we had to do to get the title.”

The home nation’s other victory came in the men’s 4x400, where Michael Cherry made his team the one to beat with a second leg of 44.3 seconds, the fastest of anyone in the field. Team USA crossed the line first in 3:02.70.

“It was pretty much when I got the baton, I probably was like third-ish,” Cherry said. “I had talked to my coach and I just wanted to get out and make a gap early on the turn. Then in the backstretch, I wanted to kind of stretch it and then bring it home strong like I knew it could.”

The Jamaican women won two relays. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce led off the 4x100 team to a lead it never relinquished and the win in 43.19 seconds. Jamaica Gold, one of two Jamaican teams in the 4x400, received consistency throughout the lineup and breezed to the win in 3:28.94.

Kenya picked up an unexpected win in the men’s sprint medley relay, hitting the line in 3:16.29. It marked the first time Kenya had won a USA vs. the World race other than the distance medley.

Despite the split, the U.S. athletes seemed to enjoy themselves. Cherry went out into the carnival village before his race and distributed Team USA gear to college and high school runners while posing for pictures with anyone who asked.

“I was once that kid that used to go run to the pros and ask for pictures and gear and stalk them all over the place, and now I get to be the pro,” said Cherry, who starred at Louisiana State. “I make sure I take pictures with everyone I see. I just try to reach out to them and lead by example.”

    Joe Juliano
    My favorite sports beats? Penn St. football in fall, Nova hoops in winter, golf in summer and Penn Relays in April.
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