April 3, 2016
RESULTS
GAINESVILLE, FL - The Nittany Lion quartet of Robby Creese, Jordan Makins, Isaiah Harris and Brannon Kidder raced their way to a 4x800-meter relay title at the 2016 Florida Relays Saturday afternoon at the Percy Beard Track in James G. Pressly Stadium on the campus of the University of Florida.
"Virginia's charged out to the lead," said head coach John Gondak.
"Robby did a good job of closing the gap and keeping us in second-place with the first handoff. Jordan and Virginia ran stride for stride holding their positions with Virginia making the exchange just before Jordan and Isaiah traded the baton close behind in second. Isaiah ran a great leg to move us past Virginia into first before Georgia inched past Isaiah at the handoff. Brannon broke away from the field and it came down to the last 200-meters where Brannon closed hard with a 26 second last 200m to hold off Georgia and finish first."
Creese opened up the race splitting 1:51 before handing to Makins, who handed to Harris, who made the final exchange handing the baton to Kidder, as final three legs of the relay split 1:49 each.
The relays time of 7:19.98 currently ranks No. 2 in the NCAA trailing only Texas A&M's 7:18.95 run a few hours earlier at the 2016 Nike Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin, Texas.
"I just tried to make sure to get out as far as possible to hand off to Jordan to put us in good position to win," said Creese.
"I had no doubt in my teammates, so when Robby gave me the stick I knew he was going to hand it off in a good position," said Makins. "I saw the Virginia guy and I know a little bit about him I know he's a decent runner so I didn't want to underestimate him and go too early. Coach told me to relay and I just tried to stay as close to him as I could to hand the stick off to Isaiah and let those two finish the job."
"It's always nice to have someone to chase," said Harris. "When you run by yourself it can be kind of tough so I was kind of happy there was someone out in front of us. I planned on sitting on him for as long as I could before finishing it on the backstretch and give it to Kidder in the lead. Georgia gave us a little push at the end but that's just good competition, it's good for us."
"It was a good race experience out there battling with Virginia," said Kidder. "It's just good to bring it home."
The Nittany Lions will return to the track Apr. 9 as they travel to Eugene, Ore. to take part in the Pepsi Invitational at historic Hayward Field.