This year, I vowed to arrive a little earlier than 3 p.m. on the first day of the meet. As this is now my fourth professional track meet, I’m excited to see familiar faces and the glamour of the world’s biggest track meet.
However, I forgot that the first day can get monotonous. I kid you not, there are four freaking hours of the same event: the girls’ 4×4. This might be the most highly attended track meet in America, but there’s always room for improvement. Couldn’t there be some better way to split up the heats so that you’re not risking turning off the audience?
There’s still plenty of drama in this event. Hundreds upon hundreds of schools will compete for the chance to make the final heat of just eight teams. Three Jamaican schools – Hydel, 3:39.55; Edwin Allen, 3:39.56; Holmwood, 3:39.82 – topped the 4×400 heats. Bullis was fourth in 3:40.24.
Edwin Allen JAM led the 4×100 in 45.63. Bullis and Pennsauken, NJ, tied for second at 45.68.
At some point, I decided to try to find my old friend Chris Pelligrini, who coaches West Springfield. This brings up an interesting point: If you were to walk around the perimeter of the Franklin Field stands just to find a specific team out of the hundreds that are there, how exhausting would it be? It turned out to be moderately easy to spot Chris and his contingent.
Eventually, I started reaching a zen state of watching 1600 relays repeatedly and enjoying the ride.
I also had time to go to the “carnival”: The standard kind of expo with a lot of commercial booths and the Marines for some odd reason. Opinions may vary, but the two highlights were the protein bar battle. In one corner, David’s was giving out free samples like a chocolate shop. Their rival, Jambar, offered World Champion 800 finalist Sage Hurta-Klecker. Last year, I met her husband, 2021 Olympian Joe Klecker. When I learned she made the finals in Tokyo, I felt especially proud to help her gain more respect from the crowd. One guy asked who she was, and I gave an especially succinct summary — “top eight in the world last year” — that made his head turn.
I asked Sage if she married Joe because he was so fast. I posited a scenario: What if the 14th runner at the University of Colorado and Joe courted her at the same time? Would his speed have been the clincher in her decision-making process? She assured me it was a matter of matching personalities and gave the very wise adage, “speed fades fast.”
While watching the 1500 heats, I was dumb enough not to realize that many of the University of Pennsylvania runners who led early before fading were actually pace setters. Silly me. I was rooting for them, too.
Around this point, many college athletes started filtering in, and I started remembering a few names. Mick Byrne, the University of Wisconsin coach with his famous Irish brogue, even remembered me, which was kind of an odd feeling since I don’t remember the encounter, and I’ve known of him for some five years.
All three heats of the women’s 1500 were incredibly close, with the winning times spanning from 4:11 to 4:16. The winner, Kylie Finger of Wisconsin, came from the second heat. I got to interview her and learned that she was one of the famous social media sensations, The Running Rats. Even though it’s just a social media channel, I was a little star-struck about learning this.
Kylie Finger, #runningrats and 1,500m champion Kylie Finger speaks with Orrin Konheim for RunBlogRun , #inthemixedzone. Kylie spoke to Orrin about being an @IG celebrity and how @uwbadgers support them. Day 1, April 23, 2026.
🎥 @okonh0wp #Pennrelays, #onrunning, #dreamon ,… pic.twitter.com/M9XkvKQpxL
— RunBlogRun (@RunBlogRun) April 26, 2026
Kylie Finger, UW Badger and Running Rat, wins the Penn Relays 1,500 meters, video by Orrin Konheim
Haley Schnoenegge (it took several glances at the program to ensure that I spelled that correctly) of Vassar got the third- or fourth-fastest time in Division III history. I was impressed that the announcer was able to pull up such a fact. Having met one of the announcers at lunch, I came to better understand the demands of this job: There are 314 events involving 1,016 high schools, around 200 colleges, middle schools, professional runners, and more. Considering how much data there is to absorb, I evolved throughout the day to give the announcer more leeway for any mistakes he might make.
Because I have to keep interviewing, writing, moving locations, stopping to catch my breath, and eating, I don’t always have the luxury of catching every event. As a result, I missed the women’s 400 hurdles while getting pictures of the warm-up area.
I later learned that Sanaa Hebron of the University of Miami set a meet record with a time of 55.30. She was followed by N.C. State’s Angelina Napoleon (3K steeplechase) and Allie Zealand of Liberty (5K) broke down three meet records.
During one of the 5K heats in the women’s race, I noticed they played “Shallow” from the film A Star Is Born. Was this pseudo-country ballad really fast-tempo enough for a race? I decided to pay more attention to the music selection and noticed an eclectic mix. The next three songs were “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” by Shania Twain, “Bye Bye Bye” by *NSYNC, and “Any Way You Want It” by Journey. It seems a little unfair to runners who have to run races to downbeat music.
The men’s 3K steeplechase and men’s 10K had disappointing fields. The only runner in the steeple with All-American potential, Victor Kibiego of Texas A&M, dropped out.
My last event for the night was an electric 5K featuring a lot of lead changes, with Georgetown’s Birhanu Harriman, UNC’s Tomer Taragano, Pierre Attiogbe of Cornell, Taylor Wade of Georgia Tech, and Freddy Collins of Boston University all wildly swinging back and forth in the lead position. Attiogbe, who made great leaps forward in the mile this year (3:52 PR), is a dual citizen who competes for France. This was his first 5K at the college level, and he thinks he will stick with it more.
I went home exhausted but excited for the star power that awaited tomorrow, as the big college relays kicked in.