Conwell students earn first-place spots at the 2022 Penn Relays

by T. Williams-62, CCB Sports Reporter

Photos from the early spring practice of the Conwell Middle Magnet School’s Penn Relays team. Students practiced hard to earn first-place spots at the Penn Relays on April 24. In the images: Students can be seen practicing in the school parking lot. Coach Adams is featured in this gallery, as well.- Photos by A. Vega- 71, CCB Photographer

Conwell Middle Magnet school students in seventh and eighth grades had a chance to be in the Penn relays when the school’s Health and Physical Education teacher, coach Adams, had a tryout for the Penn Relays in March. By the time the Penn Relays happened, two of Conwell’s students ran to first place in the 100-meter relay competitions

One of the students who raced and won in the 100-meter relay at the Penn relays, named E. Mills of section 83, said this about the Penn Relays, “It felt really great to win and it showed me that hard work really pays off”.

The students that did well in the tryout got on the team and got to practice for the Penn Relays with Coach Adams, both inside and outside the school building. 

“The eighth and seventh grade students practiced on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Coach Adams said. “They practiced on the school stairs and the yard”.

The top seventh and eighth grade male participants for the Penn Relay tryouts were E. Mills, M. Levister II, N. Irizarry, A. Castillo-Ortiz, and N. Young-Bullock. The top 7th and 8th grade female participants were A. Capps, O. Liz Sanchez, D. Hargrove, N. Lewis, and S. Ortiz. Most students raced in the Large School Boys and Girls Middle Grades 4x100meter relay.

The Penn Relays is a track and field competition from 4th grade to college, according to Coach Adams. Also the Penn Relays is the oldest track and field competition in the United States starting on April 21,1895. The Penn relays always start on the last Friday of April.

Coach Adams said the Penn Relays are located at the Franklin Field Stadium on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania.

The people who got to go were the eighth, seventh and sixth grade runners. And a couple of excellent students who got nominated from Conwell. Everyone who got to go went to the Penn relays on April 24, on a Friday.

The football stadium had a bunch of people with the tracks on the outside of the football field .The event consisted of 8th and 7th graders doing the track race and 6th graders racing on a football field in the center of the track.

“It was scary and then it was fun,” N. Lewis of section 71, who won the girls 100 meter relay, said. 

by R. Rowan – 62, CCB Staff

Editor’s Note: The following report was originally scheduled to air live on the weekly At Conwell We Are On morning show on 4/29/22, and an abridged and edited version has been printed here.

Hello Conwell! 

This is R. Rowan of section 62 reporting for ACWAO. This Tuesday on May 3rd we had taken the day off, as it was in recognition of Eid al-Fitr.

Dr. Hite, School District of Philadelphia’s superintendent, said in a district-wide message that “this is religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide because it marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan.”

As further explained on History.com, the website says:

“Ramadan is a holy month of fasting, introspection and prayer for Muslims, the followers of Islam. Each day during Ramadan, Muslims do not eat or drink from dawn to sunset. They are also supposed to avoid impure thoughts and bad behavior.”

According to History.com, the website says that “Muslims break their daily fasts by sharing meals with family and friends, and the end of Ramadan is celebrated with a three-day festival known as Eid al-Fitr, one of Islam’s major holidays.”

This year, Ramadan began at sunset on Saturday, April 2, and ends on the evening of Monday, May 2. Thank you and this has been R. Rowan reporting for ACWAO.

edited by Mr. Dungan, CCB Co-advisor