From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank

The Winslow girls took on some of the fastest 1,600-meter relay teams in the U.S. and Jamaica Friday and finished 5^th in the Penn Relays Championship of America race.

Sophomore Amariah Arango, junior Cinniya Robinson, senior Olivia Okaro and sophomore Jasmine Jackson ran 3:41.17 at Franklin Field, just off their South Jersey-record 3:40.64 – 4^th-fastest in state history – from the South Jersey Championship race on Thursday.

Winslow finished behind only three Jamaican schools and U.S. powerhouse Bullis School of Potomac, Md.

Winslow’s 5^th-place finish is the best by a South Jersey school in the Championship of America 4-by-4 in 27 years, since Willingboro – with

Takia Canty, Shakirah Rutherford, Latasha Taylor and Danielle Myricks – won the 1999 race in the pouring rain.

The only other South Jersey schools to finish in the top five in the C-of-A is Camden, who placed 4^th in both 1994 and 1995. Chantell Parks, Tynisha Revels, Aishia Lawson and Medina Salaam ran in 1994 and Revels, Salaam, Lawson and Alishia Lawson in 1995.

The fastest previous time run by a South Jersey school in a Championship of America race is Clayton’s 3:44.67 in 2022 with Arianna, Ariel and Amirah Sharpe and Kelsey Thomas.

On Friday, Arango and Robinson got the baton around the track in 1:50.44, Okaro split 55.92 and Jackson anchored in 54.82.

Pennsauken, which ran 3:41.89 on Thursday – 2^nd-fastest in South Jersey history to Winslow and 8^th-fastest in state history – scratched after breaking the state record in the 400-meter Championship of America relay earlier in the day.

The two races Thursday and Friday produced the three-fastest times ever run by South Jersey schools at Penn – by far:

3:40.64 … Winslow Twp., 2026 Championship of America [5^th]
3:41.17 … Winslow Twp., 2026 South Jersey Large School [1^st]
3:41.89 … Pennsauken, 2026 South Jersey Large School [2^nd]
3:43.46 … Winslow Twp., 2025, South Jersey Large School [1^st]
3:44.67 … Clayton, 2022 Championship of America [6^th]

3:45.41 … Camden, 1995 Championship of America [4^th]

3:45.74 … Willingboro, 1999 Championship of America [1^st]

3:45.94 … Camden, 1995 South Jersey [1^st]

3:46.18 … Willingboro, 2000 Philadelphia Area [1^st]

3:47.30 … Willingboro, 2003 South Jersey Large School [1]

3:47.39 … Clayton, 2022 South Jersey Small School [1]

3:48.08 … Winslow Twp., 2017 Philadelphia Area [3^rd]

3:48.80 … Willingboro, 1999 South Jersey Large School [1]

3:49.30 … Winslow Twp., 2004 Philadelphia Area [1^st]

3:49.46 … Eastern, 2003 South Jersey Large School [2]

3:49.74 … Eastern, 2003 Philadelphia Area [1^st]

3:49.97 … Lenape, 2015 Philadelphia Area [3^rd]

3:49.53 … Willingboro, 1998 Philadelphia Area [1^st]