Junior co-captain Thea Lee, pictured here in earlier action, was part of the women’s distance medley relay that set a school record and won the collegiate title at the prestigious Penn Relays. The squad finished in 11:21.31.

No one ran faster than Usain Bolt, but the Harvard track and field team did not disappoint at the 116th annual Penn Relays.

The Crimson recorded some impressive finishes at the historic meet, which brings together the world’s best high school, collegiate, and national runners for a three-day competition that featured races including the world’s fastest man and his Jamaican teammates this year.

“The Penn Relays is a pretty impressive meet,” said men’s co-captain Jack Brady. “There were a lot of fans, it was a great atmosphere, and everyone thought it was a great event.”

On Thursday, it was the Harvard women’s distance medley relay team that stole the show, shattering a school record while winning a collegiate title.

The team of freshmen Melissa Bellin and Carlyle Davis, junior co-captain Thea Lee, and classmate Claire Richardson finished with a time of 11:21.31, topping second-place Texas by just one second. The team beat the former Crimson record, set last year, by 19 seconds.

“The Penn Relays isn’t the most ideal environment in terms of race preparation, warming up, that sort of thing,” Harvard coach Jason Saretsky said. “But I thought the ladies did a great job getting out there and competing.”

On Friday, Harvard continued to turn in strong performances.

Brady placed third out of 31 in the Eastern Collegiate shot put, with a 16.25-meter throw, and freshman teammate Edward Brucker finished fifth with a 16.05-meter toss.

“I was happy with my place, because I didn’t have a medal from the Penn Relays,” Brady said. “In terms of my distance, it was a fine throw, not particularly good or bad for me. I thought overall it was productive.”

Also on the men’s side, the 4x200-meter relay team—co-captain Justin Grinstead, sophomores Jonathan Meminger and John Dingus, and junior John Fahnestiel—finished 28th out of 69 teams.

On Saturday, another Harvard women’s team turned in a dominant performance, with the quartet of Davis, Lee, sophomore Meghan Looney, and junior Hilary May winning the 4x800-meter relay in 8:46.98. Their time topped 25 other teams, including second-place Dartmouth by nearly six seconds. The team fell just three seconds short of breaking the 13-year-old meet record in the event, held by Penn State.

“It was really fun to see them compete,” Saretsky said. “Lee did an outstanding job getting us into position, and then each athlete ran really strong legs.”

BROWN SPRINGTIME INVITATIONAL

At the Brown Springtime Invitational yesterday afternoon, both the men’s and women’s teams continued to record head-turning performances.

Sophomore Tyler Funk won the men’s high jump, with a leap of 1.96 meters, and freshman Jakob Lindaas finished first in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:41.60. It was only Lindaas’s second time participating in the event.