Radnor graduate Ali sets all-time record at U.K.-U.S. Dual in England

Radnor High School graduate Lydia Ali, now a University of Pennsylvania junior track and field star, has been used to dominating local competition, but a recent meet in Cambridge, England provided a stiffer challenge—runners from both the U.S. and overseas.

Ali qualified for an Ivy League “super team” of sorts in a meet against Cornell and traveled to the U.K. to face off against a team composed of Oxford and Cambridge runners. The biannual meet, dubbed “The U.K.-U.S. Dual,” has been running for nearly 60 years and alternates in location between Philadelphia and London.

Her performance was one to remember: she broke the all-time meet record in the 100-meter dash and anchored the 4×100 relay team, all with her family in attendance.

“We all went over,” her brother-in-law, Spencer Wertheimer said. “Our whole family was in England to watch the meet.”

She’s no stranger to success. At Radnor, Ali was the state champion in the 60-meter and 100-meter dashes. In her junior year at Penn, she competed in the Ivy League championships and was voted the team MVP by her peers. Her name is everywhere on the team’s top ten all-time lists, in everything from the 60 to the 400-meter dash. She’s following in the footsteps of Werthheimer, who competed on the same team in the 60s.

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Lydia Ali broke the all-time meet record in the 100-meter dash and anchored the 4x100 relay team at the U.K.-U.S. Dual. (University of Pennsylvania Athletic Department photo)