Long Beach Poly Girls Win 400 and 1,600 Races at Penn Relays

Getting two strong anchor legs by Andrea Anderson, Long Beach Poly High became the first American school to win the 400- and 1,600-meter girls’ relays at the 100th annual Penn Relays Friday.

Zahalea Showe, Aminah Haddad, Pam Simpson and Anderson won the 400 relay in 45.81 seconds, ending a 13-year 400 reign by St. Jago of Spanish Town, Jamaica. St. Jago was second in 46.14.

Four hours later, Poly again disappointed the pro-Jamaican crowd of about 20,000 by winning the 1,600 relay in 3:41.44. Myesha Williams, Haddad, Simpson and Anderson led from the start to defeat Manchester of Mandeville, Jamaica, which finished second in 3:43.95. Vere Tech of Hayes, Jamaica, had won the last nine years.

“We’ve been looking forward to the Penn Relays for more than a year,” Anderson said. “We knew the Jamaican schools would be here and their fans would be in the stands waving their flags. But we wanted to come here and represent Long Beach Poly and California, and that’s what we did.”

In the 3,200-meter relay, the Jackrabbits’ team of Jamil Hill, Erin O’Keefe, Sherron Rhetta and Williams finished second in 9:07.77, behind Manchester’s 9:04. Poly’s time in the 3,200 is the fastest by a California girls’ team.