Longtime high school track aficionado Larry Byrne provides this update on local athletes who have been accepted to compete at the upcoming Penn Relays:

Hi all

The Penn Relays Office announced today those HS athletes accepted for the individual events during their three-day "Carnival" - April 26-28 in Philadelphia, Pa.

Only two RI entries were selected...Andrew Palumbo, Bishop Hendricken as one of 20 in the Boys Mile..while Jacob Keeling, Ponaganset made the 22-man field in the Javelin Throw.

Palumbo is the second consecutive "Hawk" chosen for this Mile field, as Tom Webb finished 8th in the 2006 event in 4:17.15.

This year's field has top milers from 11 states [MD, PA, WI, CO, UT, CA, OH, NY, DE, VA, and RI] and three from outside the US [Jamaica, Canada and Trinidad].

Among others chosen for this elite group...the 2006 champ [@ 4:13.82], Dominic DellaPelle of Salesianum, Wilmington, DE, back to defend...along with the 2007 #1 Indoor miler, Matt Centrowitz, Broadneck, Annapolis, MD [@ 4:08.76], who is dropping down from winning the 3000m at Penn last year.

Also included are Charles White of Cherry Creek, CO, who was 2nd in last Saturday's Arcadia [CA] Mile [@ 4:10.04]...and the Arcadia Two Mile winner [@ 9:00.51] Luke Puskedra, Judge Memorial, Salt Lake City, believed to be the first Utah HS athlete to compete at Penn.

Since the Javelin Throw is strictly an Outdoor event [Deo Gratis], the season is much too early to know what Jacob's competitors have done so far...but suffice to note that the top seed is a kid from "far away" British Columbia, Canada, and I gather that he's not coming some 3,000 miles not to take home a Penn Relays wristwatch.

As soon as the DMR and 4x800m elite fields are announced, I will pass this info along to all interested parties. The other two relay events....the 4x100m and 4x400m...are "open" to all who enter them.

Larry