The IMG Academy boys won the 4x200 meter relay at the New Balance Nationals Indoor title on Saturday with the second fastest time ever in U.S. high school history with a 1:26.06 victory. IMG got in the lead after their first leg Davonte Howell and held it for the remaining three legs in Caine Stanley, Avian Edwards-Pla, and Dylan Woodruffe to stay ahead of the rest of the finals field including an Archbishop Carroll squad (2nd, 1:26.77) from DC featuring one of the nation's top individual sprinters in Nyckoles Harbor.
Archbishop Carroll was the favorites and national leaders coming into the meet after running US #4 all-time 1:26.42 at the VA Showcase back in January. Only the 2019 Bullis School squad at 1:25.60 from their performance at the VA Showcase has run faster in U.S. high school history than IMG Academy's winning time at New Balance Nationals Indoor.
Impressively, it was the first time that this group from IMG Academy has run a 4x200 meter relay together this past weekend in Boston. Could sense the potential of what they could do in a 4x200 meter relay though in earlier indoor meets including at the Alachua County Sports Center when all 4 of their potential relay legs ran under 22 seconds in the open 200 meter dash with Edwards-Pla at 21.28, Woodruffe at 21.59. Stanley at 21.66, and Howell at 21.86.