For the first time in 22 years, the Willingboro girls are Millrose Games champions.
Kaila Speight, Nester Wea, Jaden Murry and Maya Bolden teamed up to win the Suburban 1,600-Meter Relay Saturday at the 117th annual Millrose Games at the Armory.
The Chimeras ran 3:55.04, winning by 30 meters over Nyack High of Upper Nyack, N.Y., which placed 2nd in 3:59.56. Splits were posted on the results site earlier but have since disappeared for reasons I don’t understand.
This is the 5th time Willingboro has won Millrose but the first since 2003, when Chanel Hamilton, Halimah Bashir, Rhea Mann and Okechi Ogbuokiri won in 4:04.19 despite Mann getting tripped and falling to the track on the third leg.
Willingboro also won in 1998 in 3:56.66 with Latasha Taylor, Takia Canty, Kendra Brown and Shakirah Rutherford, in 1999 in 3:57.47 with Taylor, Danielle Myricks, Canty and Rutherford and in 4:01.11 in 2002 with Hamilton, Bashir, Mann and Ogbuokiri.
This is the 4th straight year a different South Jersey school has won the suburban relay. Rancocas Valley won in 2022, Timber Creek in 2023 and Winslow Township last year.
Other South Jersey schools to win the girls race: Camden in 1995, the first year it was contested, Seneca in 2009 and Winslow in 2017 and 2018.
Willingboro’s time is 9th-fastest in Burlington County history.It’s 2nd-fastest in New Jersey this year, behind Winslow’s 3:46.87 at Ocean Breeze last week.
All-time South Jersey 1,600-Meter Relay List
3:45.37 … Willingboro, 2003
3:46.87 … Winslow Twp., 2025
3:47.95 … Willingboro, 2002
3:49.07 … Camden, 1995
3:49.50 … Winslow Twp., 2024
3:49.59 … Timber Creek, 2024
3:51.49 … Winslow Twp., 2017
3:52.37 … Willingboro, 2000
3:52.55 … Wilson, 2006
3:53.61 … Willingboro, 1998
3:53.81 … Paul VI, 2020
3:53.82 … Timber Creek, 2023
3:53.6h … Willingboro, 1999
3:53.97 … Rancocas Valley, 2019
3:54.38 … Camden, 2009
3:54.59 … Willingboro, 2024
3:54.4h … Eastern, 2003
3:54.62 … Rancocas Valley, 2020
3:54.69 … Eastern, 2023
3:54.82 … Millville, 2008
3:54.99 … Winslow Twp., 2018
3:55.04 … Millville, 2019
3:55.04 … Willingboro, 2025
3:55.28 … Rancocas Valley, 2017
3:55.40 … Winslow Twp., 2019
3:55.94 … Winslow Twp., 2020
3:55.8h … Wilson, 2002
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 