The 130th Penn Relays concluded at Franklin Field on Saturday afternoon with two of the most familiar storylines in college relay racing: a Villanova distance win in the College Men's 4xMile Championship of America, and Texas A&M defending their grip on the College Women's 4x100m Championship of America. Both finals went to the wire, and both required anchor legs that will be replayed in the Penn Relays archive for years.
The 4xMile, run at 1:05 p.m. in front of a near-capacity Saturday afternoon crowd, came down to a head-to-head between Villanova's Marco Langon and Oregon's anchor in the final 200m. Villanova led off and traded the lead with Oregon, BYU and Princeton through the first three legs, with Princeton's third runner Sam Hughes producing the fastest split of the day at 3:55.4 to hand his anchor a clean field. Langon, taking the baton in fifth at 1,200m to go, ran the kind of negative-split anchor leg that has become a Villanova trademark, closing the final 800m in 1:53.7 to win by 0.05 of a second. Oregon were second, BYU third and Princeton fourth in a top-four split by less than three seconds.
The College Women's 4x100m Championship of America went to Texas A&M for the third year running, the Aggies anchored by 100m and 200m sprinter Kennedy Wade who came home in 10.78. LSU were second, USC third and a strong North Carolina A&T fourth — the latter producing the fastest split of the race on the second leg in 10.66. The College Women's 4x1500m Championship of America, decided earlier in the afternoon, went to Notre Dame in 17:36.4, with the Irish using a 4:18.7 third leg from Olivia Markezich to break a tactical race apart with one circuit to go.
Beyond the Championship of America finals, the 130th edition produced its share of school records and unfamiliar names. Clarendon College, the Jamaican junior programme that has used Penn Relays as a development showcase for almost two decades, took multiple wins across the Wednesday and Thursday programme, with Marla Kay Lampart's opening-day victory followed by two further podiums on Friday. Clemson's three wins and multiple podiums made them one of the meet's most efficient ACC performers, and Mississippi's high-school invitational programme produced two state records over the four-day meet.
The 130th Penn Relays drew a four-day attendance figure that organisers are still finalising but described on Saturday evening as "in line with last year" — a quietly significant statement given the event's scheduling overlap, for the first time, with the second weekend of the Drake Relays in Des Moines. The competition for elite collegiate slate, which has tilted Drake's way for the last three editions on a number of marquee events, did not noticeably hurt Penn this year. The 131st edition is provisionally scheduled for 22-24 April 2027.