PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia is a city of hard beats, but none came harder than the one the Bullis School boys experienced at the Penn Relays presented by Toyota. 

The Bulldogs were the recipients of two ill-timed falls in the Championship of America 4x400 across two races on Saturday.

Early Saturday morning, behind the fastest 400 meter split in Penn Relays history by sophomore Quincy Wilson, Bullis School was able to fight off time. 

But by the second lightning strike, heading into the critical second hand-off and the third leg of the 4x400, that devastating beat put the Maryland power back by a significant margin. 

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It was Kingston College who escaped the madness to win in 3:11.86, using a final 46-second split by Marathon Rose to finish things. 

Meanwhile, Wilson hammered over the final 400 meters to pull Bullis School back to third with a 44.69 split. Excelsior, who was involved in the collision with Bullis in the final, was second in 3:12.94. 

The critical hand-off exchange was a flurry of bodies made possible by a wave of five runners incoming into the exchange zone. 

As Colin Abrams swerved to pass to Julian Roberson, Excelsior's incoming runner fell to the track, blocking Roberson's path, while its outbound runner avoided the fray. 

Earlier in the day, Bullis School's Alex Lambert was clipped on the heel over the first leg of the heats, but the Bulldogs were able to recover with splits of 48.75, 49.06 and 44.37 to seal the win in the heat. That 44.37 was the fastest split ever recorded by a high school athlete at the Penn Relays. 

Kingston College, one of 47 high school from Jamaica participating in the 2024 Penn Relays, took home the title for the third consecutive time.

The win makes Kingston the fifth team in Penn Relays history to complete a three-peat in the 4x400 relay and continues a Jamaican dominance in the discipline that now includes 17 straight wins for teams from the island nation.

The last American team to win the boys 4x400 relay was Long Beach Poly from Long Beach, California, in 2007.

The runner-up Saturday was Jamaica’s Excelsior (3:12.94), followed by Bullis with 3:13.10.

Wilson was joined in the final Julian Roberson, Colin Abrams and Cameron Horner. They qualified fourth for the nine-team final with a time of 3:14.84.

The best news for Bullis is that no one on the team is a senior, so there will be a chance for redemption at the Penn Relays in 2025. Just over a month ago, at the 2024 New Balance Indoor Nationals in Boston, Wilson set a junior world record in the indoor 400 meters with a time of 45.76 seconds. 

* Matt Cannizzaro contributed to this story

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