Track and Field: Men’s 4 X 400 relay team sets school record over the weekend

Pitt track and field’s 4×400 men’s relay team set a school record at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia on Saturday.

The victory at the University of Pennsylvania coincided with the 75th anniversary of Pitt’s last win in the men’s 4×400 event there.

“It couldn’t have been written any better than this,” head coach Alonzo Webb said in a school-issued release.

While the 3:03.44 finish by the unit of Micah Murray, Carvin Nkanata, Desmond Palmer and Brycen Spratling doesn’t rank among the top ten all-time Penn Relays results, the team had relative ease in its feat, finishing ahead of runner-up Texas by 1.69 seconds.

“It feels great. We talked about it [75 years since last Pitt 4×400 win at Penn] in the beginning of the year, about how nice it would be if we could win it for these guys out here,” Spratling said in a release on the Penn Relays website.

Murray, runner of the first leg, felt confident in the team’s ability to hold the lead.

“I knew we had it once we got in first. I knew we were going to stay in first,” he said. “It’s amazing. It means we go down in history. We’re part of the history books.”

Former Pitt Panther Herb Douglas (’48), who won the bronze medal in the long jump at the 1948 Olympics, attended the competition.

“Herb is such a big supporter of Pitt. He talked to me all year about coming to the Relays to watch the 4×4 win, and we did exactly that for him and the University of Pittsburgh,” Webb said in the release.

Seniors Murray, Nkanata, and Spratling also had success in the 4×200 relay with Dustin Fuller, setting another school record (1:22.66) and finishing fifth.

Other top Pitt performances at the meet include a 1:36.88 time for the women’s 4X200 relay team, good for third place in the ECAC event,  while freshman Ethan Shalaway placed 12th overall in the javelin throw (61.88 meters), and the women’s 4×800 meter relay posted a season best time of 9:08.35.