What to know about this year’s Penn Relays: Who’s headlining, where to watch, and more

Penn Relays devotees never need an excuse to head to Franklin Field on the last weekend of April. But for casual fans who want to see stars on the historic track, the 130th Carnival won’t offer much.

Beyond Relays veterans Ajee’ Wilson and Natoya Goule-Toppin in the women’s 800 meters, most of the names in the Olympic Development races aren’t all that well known.

In fact, the person who might draw the most attention this year is a high schooler: Quincy Wilson of the Bullis School in the Washington suburbs is expected to lead his team in the boys’ 4x400-meter relay.

Last year, Wilson helped Bullis break a 40-year-old national high school record in the 4x400, and his 43.99-second leg set a record for the fastest high school split in Relays history. But the team’s time of 3 minutes, 6.31 seconds was only good enough for second place.

Kingston College of Jamaica won the big wheel in the event for the fourth straight year, tying another Relays record.

Will this year see the first U.S. champion in the event for 19 years? We’ll find out Saturday. Bullis’ heat is set for 11:10 a.m., and the final is set for 5:50 p.m. — fittingly, the last race of the meet.

“We are as excited about the Jamaica-U.S. rivalry as anyone,” Bullis coach Joe Lee said. “I’ve already been getting text messages with people giving me the business. … We are fully loaded, we are pushing all our chips into the center of the table, and we know they are, too.“

» READ MORE: A look back at last year's record-setting boys' 4x400m relay

That certainly happened last year. Not only did Bullis and Kingston College set records, but the race produced the top six times in the event’s history at the Relays.

“It’s a fun rivalry we have between us and them with the sprints, and it’s always something [where] excitement happens,” Lee said. “Quincy’s 43.99 last year was exciting. We were close but didn’t get it done, but we think this year we have as good a shot as any.”

In the big picture, what can make the Relays a big destination for the pros again? It’s never been a question of fan interest, as Grand Slam Track proved last year by drawing about 30,000 to Franklin Field over two days.

That event had flaws, including a financial fiasco that sank the circuit. Philadelphia’s event ended up being the last one, with the planned finale in Los Angeles canceled before it started. Athletes and vendors were left unpaid, leaving track legend Michael Johnson’s reputation tarnished as the organizer.

The Athletic reported last month that Grand Slam still owed Penn $135,000. Scott Ward, Penn’s associate athletic director and chief operations officer, said that money is, in fact, owed to a third party, though he didn’t name it.

“There was an outstanding balance that will eventually be settled, but Penn Athletics itself was made whole,” he said, later adding: “We didn’t take a loss from it. We actually, much like any of our other rental events, made money off of it.”

Johnson attempted to cut through the tangled web of governing bodies and (more important) sponsors that stand in the way and get athletes into the big city to shine on America’s most historic track.

“I think if in some world Grand Slam Track or Grand Slam Track 2.0 comes back, I think they would want to be here based on the experience they had,” Ward said. “I think they just had some issues on the operational and financial side. But I think the athletes themselves enjoyed it. The fans showed up, they enjoyed it.”

» READ MORE: No matter what Harvard claims, Penn’s Franklin Field is the oldest collegiate stadium being used for football

If anyone needs another reason to do it soon, the countdown to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles is an obvious one.

A glimmer of hope comes from USA Track & Field, which in October unveiled its own USATF Tour. The Relays are on it. Hopefully, that gets people working together — and if nothing else, avoids the embarrassment of 2024 when the governing body held its own star-studded meet in Bermuda on Relays weekend. (The Drake Relays remain at the same time, though, as they long have.)

“I do think USA Track is excited about the meet, and is certainly supporting us, and it’ll be fun to partner with them in the years to come,” Relays director Steve Dolan said.

Ward added that USATF has some new staff he has spoken with, and it has “super-supportive of growing our relationship. ... I’m hopeful that that continues to progress, especially looking forward to 2028.”

And he was clear that Penn still wants to host professional meets at Franklin Field.

“I don’t think it discourages us from either somebody else coming in and wanting to do something here, or someday in the future, us exploring it ourselves,” he said. “I think we just proved that Philly is a good destination to do professional track events.”

Tickets are available at PennRelays.com. Prices start at $29 on Thursday and Friday, and $36 for Saturday. Most of the stadium is set at that price on Thursday and Friday, with the exception being the lower-level sideline on the finishing side. Lower-level seats are $63 and up on Saturday, including fees.

There won’t be a traditional TV broadcast this year. All three days will be exclusively on the streaming platform FloSports, which costs $30 per month or $150 per year.

» READ MORE: Inside a century of the historic Penn Relays victory wheel: ‘It’s truly Penn’

If you do go, a good souvenir is always the Penn Relays program, chock-full of stats and history. Although the price has risen over the years, it remains a bargain at $15.

The full schedule of events is available at pennrelaysonline.com.