Track and Field Roundup : TCU’s 800 Team Wins in Penn Relays

Texas Christian won the 800-meter relay at the 92nd annual Penn Relays in a world-best time of 1 minute 20.20 seconds Saturday in Philadelphia.

The quartet of Roscoe Tatum, Andrew Smith, Leroy Reid and Greg Scholars surpassed the record of 1:20.26 set in 1978 by USC at Tempe, Ariz.

The time is not a world record because Reid and Smith are Jamaicans, and all members of a team must be from the same country for a world mark.

The Horned Frogs also won the 400-meter relay in 39.11, a meet record.

Defending champion Arkansas, with Gary Taylor running 3:35.5 on the third 1,500-meter leg, took the 6,000-meter relay in 14:55.30.

Seton Hall won the sprint medley relay in 3:13.67 as Akanni Gbadamost ran his 800-meter leg in 1:46.4.

In the high school 1,600-meter relay, William Reed of Philadelphia Central ran his leg in 45.10 seconds, the fastest high school split ever recorded at the Penn Relays, in leading his team to a 3:13.9 victory.

Devon Morris, a Jamaican representing Wayland Baptist, set a meet record of 45.21 in the 400-meter dash at the 77th Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.

Morris bettered the mark of 45.31 set by Auburn’s Willie Smith in 1977.

Another record fell in the women’s 400 as Alabama’s Lillie Leatherwood dashed to a time of 50.91.

In a mild upset, Calvin Smith, the world record-holder in the 100-meter dash, was edged by Missouri’s Chidi Imoh with a time of 10.37. Smith blasted out of the starting blocks and appeared headed to victory, but Imoh moved ahead at the 50-meter mark and took control of the race. Emmit King, running for New Balance, was third.

The opposite was the case for Smith in the 200 meters as he clearly left the blocks last, then overtook the rest of the field to win in a time of 20.82.