Highlights by Elliot Denman

DYESTAT RALEIGH
2003 DAY TWO
FROM ELLIOTT DENMAN

GIRLS EVENTS

4X1-MILE RELAY – Freshman phenom Nicole Blood stayed home with a reported slight hamstring strain. So what? For anyone else but the magnificently-stocked Saratoga Springs, N.Y. squad, Blood’s absence would have spelled major grief.
For Saratoga, running at 8:30 a.m. – long before the afternoon heat kicked in – it was a double case of no sweat.
The Saratogans’ 20:42.74 triumph, representing the No. 4 time in USA scholastic annals, was achieved by Lindsay Ferguson, Cameron Vahanian, Kirsten Hornbach and anchor Ruby Solomon. Their splits, in order: 5:09.6, 5:16.9, 5:10.2, 5:05.0.
Hornbach, the lone senior, is headed for Columbia University (a rising distance running power) in the fall. Solomon’s just a sophomore, Ferguson and Vahanian are freshmen.
Hornbach took the lead on third leg and Saratoga stayed there the balance of the route.
Another upstate New York squad, Southside of Elmira, grabbed second in 20:56.11 – at least 90 meters back of Saratoga. It was Turpin of Ohio third (20:56.79) with Bronxville, the national and meet record-holder (with its 20:11.56 in 2002) settled for fourth this time around (21:02.15.)
Understandably, Hornbach was delighted to go out on top.
“It feels good (understating),” she said. “I’ve never been a national champion.”
Declared Solomon: “We were a little more nervous about the time that we’d be able to get (running without Blood), but we wanted to try and do our best and see what we could do without her.”
One more Saratoga quartet ran third (21:50.66) in the unseeded section back of Brighton, Michigan (21:33.13) and Harrison, N.Y. (21:45.54.)

DISTANCE MEDLEY UNSEEDED SECTIONS – A single-section of the morning 10-lapper set the stage for the seeded-section-fireworks due as the curtain-closing event tonight.
A Montville Township, NJ club took it in 12:25.79 over Cherokee, a South Jersey foe, which did 12:31.51, and Brea Olinda, California, at 12:47.24.

800-METER SPRINT MEDLEY RELAY – William Penn of Philadelphia, anchored by sprint sensation Juanita Broaddus, made it a record-breaking romp and one more going-away present for retiring coach Tim Hickey.
The Penn girls came from behind to hit the line in a sizzling 1:40.95, thereby demolishing the meet best of 1:42.63 set last year by Long Beach Wilson…but, then again, no threat to the USA record of 1:38.73 set this April by Long Beach Poly.
Carl Lewis-alma mater Willingboro, NJ (1:44.06), Deep Creek, Va. (1:45.17) and Morgan Park, Illinois (1:45.28) trailed home - from a distance.
“Yeah (she’s run well this week), but I’m hurting right now,” said Broaddus. “My butt hurts. I always do the four (hundred.) I run the 4x4. I just don’t like it.”
Clemson-bound Christina Smith is the only other senior on the Penn quartet.
“I don’t know (if the team was expecting a meet record),” said Smith. “My teammates were, but I didn’t expect it.
“My coach told us that the team ahead of us has a good sprint team, but they didn’t have a quarter-miler.
“I had the feeling we were going to win. I just didn’t think we were going to run that fast.
“It (winning) means a lot to us. We’ve (she and Broaddus) been together since ninth grade. We’re going our separate ways now, so it’s going to be hard.”

200-METER DASH - She’d written a meet long jump record Friday with inches of sand to spare, but Tianna Madison of Elyria, Ohio had trouble squeezing into the nine-runner half-lap final. Her 24.21 in the prelims shared spots 8-9 with Jacksonville, Fla.’s Tiaerra McLaurin.
It was tight at the front of the qualifying pack, too, with Holy Trinity of Hicksville, NY’s Shana Cox at 23.80 and Lawrenceville, Ga.’s Courtney Champion at 23.81.
To Champion, it was just a matter of “trying to qualifying, (to) not use too much energy, saving for the final.”
Chicago’s Alexandria Anderson advanced in 23.93, then ran off to cool down.
“It’s hot out there,” said Anderson. “I’m not used to this weather. The track is hot, but I feel good.”
Cox is also a dynamite 400 runner and finds it hard to choose between half a lap and a full one.
“I like both of them,” she said, unwilling to lean hard in either direction.
Rather than sit on the proverbial fence at Nationals, Cox went out and won both of them.
She broke a 23-year-old New York State record in taking the 200 final.
It was still close for a while down the concluding meters of the 200 final, but she shrugged it all off.
“I don’t think it is competition,” she said.
“I just think I was at a different part of my race than they were. I was starting my drive phase and everyone else was starting their acceleration phase.”
She didn’t think that unusual at all.
“I have a longer drive phase than most people,” she said.
A sub-23 remains her 2003 goal and she hopes the upcoming World Youth meet in Canada and National Junior Olympics provide the stage for that kind of feat.

FRESHMAN 1-MILE RUN – The New Jersey middle and long-distance running tradition is long and lustrous. Mary Slaney, Lynn Jennings and Joetta Clark, among others, have ties to the Garden State.
So who’s destined to be next on the honors list?
Lisa Burkholder may be as good a candidate as any.
The Cherokee High (Marlton, NJ) runner was mighty impressive in striding to a record-breaking 5:01.94 tiumph in the freshman mile.
Thus booted from the meet record list was Virginian Sarah Bowman’s 5:05.62 of 2002.
She breezed home in front of Mason, Ohio’s Angelo Bizzarri (whose 5:05.04 also bested Bowman’s standard), Saline, Michigan’s Eileen Creutz (5:12.30) and Orchard Park, NY’s Erika Somogyi (5:15.32.)
“It was kind of hard because I got stuck on the inside, but I moved away to the outside and it was good after that,” said Burkholder.
She’d run a 5:06 mile in the unseeded section of the morning DMR but didn’t think it took anything out of her second race.
“No, I had a lot of time to get rested and rehydrate,” she said. “I felt really good while I was out there.”
She kicked home with a 71.7 last quarter.
“My last couple of races, my last lap has been about 78 (seconds) and I know I should go fast(er) in the end, so I’m happy with a 71.
“It (winning the national title) hasn’t sunk in yet. I’m really excited because I get a ring.”

400-METER HURDLES - - After two plus-60 sections, won by Tallahassee, Florida’s Loreal Smith (1:01.71) and Willingboro, NJ’s Rhea Mann (1:02.52), fans finally to cheer on two 59ers.
The final boiled down to a Philadelphia intramural duel and it went to West Catholic sophomore sensation Nicole Leach (59.22) over William Penn senior Christina Smith (59.59.)
One of their near-neighbors from South Jersey, Voorhees senior Kristina Keegan held on for third (1:00.69.)
First non-Delaware Valley finisher was fourth-placer Rachel Wilson of Pooler, Ga, (1:00.85.)
“I was hoping to run under 59, but I’m just happy that I won,” said Leach.
When Smith came up to her side late in the race, Leach simply dug down a tad further to win it all.
“I knew that I had to use my strength because I was nervous going over the first four hurdles. I didn’t get out like I was supposed to, but I still came out with the win, so I’m happy.
“I knew I could come on (over) the last three hurdles and run through the homestretch.”
Her sub-59 plans will now focus on the Youth World Championhips in Canada and the National Junior Olympics.

800-METER RUN – Pursuing US citizenship for Katya Kostetskaya might be an interesting avenue for US Olympic Committee talent scouts to pursue.
The young Russian, who is a sophomore at Arkansas’s Jonesboro High, is obviously destined to make her make her mark as a big-time two-lapper.
Well, she didn’t knock out the meet record (2:04.55 by Tameika Grizzle in 1996) but she still hit the line in 2:05.95 for an American sophomore record.
Oem, Utah’s Heidi Magill (2:06.74) and Tecumseh, Kansas’s Trisa Nickoley (2:08.40) finished strongly to snare the 2-3 positions.
Philly’s Latavia Thomas of West Catholic took the third of four sections in 2:09.40 and that pushed her up to fifth over-all in final standings.
Kostetkaya “went out” in 28 seconds and hit the 400 in 60 “My coach was yelling at me, ‘go faster,’ ‘’ she said. “And I thought it started out pretty slow.”
She flies to Russia Monday, hoping to qualify for the national team headed for the World Youth Championships in Canada.

4X100 RELAY – Alief High of Elsik, Texas had zipped a lap this year in 44.63, the USA record, so it was no surprise seeing them clobber eight quality opponents in the final here.
The race went in a slow-for-Alief 45.64, but still left such major challengers as Peoria of Arizona (46.16), Franklin of New Jersey (46.47) and William Penn of Philadelphia (46.47) nowhere close.

400-METER DASH – It took just over 80 minutes for Shana Cox, a sizzling senior at Holy Trinity High in Hicksville, NY to double the excitement of every track enthusiast on the premises. First came this Long Island star’s 52.94 triumph at one lap. After catching her breath, Cox came right back to dash to half-lap glory.
Four sections – the fastest taken by Garysburg, NC’s Cynetheia Rooks in 54.73 – set the stage for Cox’s victory in race No. 5. It was cool and controlled.
Jerrika Chapple, a Lancaster, Texas senior (53.18), and Natasha Hastings, a junior at NYC’s A.P. Randolph High (53.40) provided Cox’s most serious challenges at this “metric quarter.”

1-MILE RUN – Stanford University keeps stockpiling young distance talent – male and female – but Ari Lambie of Broomfield Academy in Harvard, Mass. may be the most sensational Palo Alto-bound prospect of them all.
The Penn Relays champion and Verizon Millrose Games runner-up, the amazing Lambie simply destroyed perhaps the finest field ever gathered for a girls high school mile race in the USA.
She sped to a 1:12.7 first 400 and started to edge away at the 700-meter mark. It was 2:20.9 at 800 and 3:29.8 at 1200 with virtually all the records on the line.
Sure, Lambie was destined to fall short of Erin Donohue’s 2001 meet record of 4:42.96 and Polly Plumer’s national best-ever of 4:35.2, dating to 1982, and finished in 4:38.98, but sure did impress every fan here. The 4:39.98 ranks No. 4 on theal-time scholastic charts.
It was done with a remarkable sense of pace. Each of Lambie’s last six 200s took just 34-plus.
Lambie earned rounds of rousing applause as she raced the final meters and left defending champion Megan Kaltenbach of Aurora, Colorado (4:49.28) at least 70 meters back.
Maggie Infeld, a junior from University Heights, Ohio, snared third (4:51.86) with Loudonville, NY’s Elizabeth Maloy fourth (4:52.15.) All told, 18 of the 29 runners in the three-section race broke five minutes.

100-METER HURDLES - One more winner in the most-dominating category was hurdles champion Alandra Sherman of Houston. Her 13.60 put her within a shout of the meet record (13.38) and brought her in with daylight to spare on the pack.
Top trailers were Fort Lauderdale’s Shantia Moss (13.88), South Orange, NJ’s Porcha Dobson (14 flat) and North of California’s Ashlee Brown (14.01.)

2,000-METER STEEPLECHASE – Heather Iatauro was by far the class of the two-section 20-runner field, powering home in 6:54.39, but the meet and national record (6:52.25 by Liz Gesel of Manchester, NH in 2001) was just out of reach.
But wait til next year, when this Grahamsville, NJ student (now a junior) comes barreling down the homestretch of her
lustrous scholastic career.
Seniors Shauneen Garrahan of Fairfax Station, Va. (7:02.98), Erin Demchko of Nanuet, NY (7:04.73) and Kate Dobransky of New City, NY (7:09.42) went 2-3-4 but were far back of Iatauro’s slipstream.

4x400 RELAY FINAL – Skyline High had a tough trek – 23 hours by van from Texas, interrupted only by eating and limbering-up breaks – but once here they rolled on and on.
Their 3:38.35 triumph (on the heels of their 1:35.65 4x200 romp Friday) was magnificent – the Skyliners moving up to No. 11 all-time USA and becoming the first Texas team to break 3:40.

DISTANCE MEDLEY RELAY- Red Bank Regional’s 11:42.17 victory of 2002 was a terrific performance, for sure.
It was a meet record – but not terrific enough for these Little Silver, NJ-based Bucs.
They wanted more and they surely got it last night.
Amanda Trotter, Elizabeth Mayer, Christina Nelson and Katy Trotter brought Red Bank home in the new national figures of 11:37.86.
Booted from the books was the 11:42.18 2000 performance by San Lorenzo Valley of California at the Penn Relays.
Amanda T. ran a 3:32.3 1200 meters, Mayer a 60.5 400, Nelson a 2:16.8 800, and Katy T. a come-from-behind 4:48.2 anchor 1600.
It was a marvelous farewell to high school track for the Stanford-bound Trotters. Mayer is a junior, Nelson a freshman.
Katy Trotter surged in front on her third lap and blazed home with 45 meters to spare on the gallant runners-up, Bay Shore of Long Island (11:45.61.)

POLE VAULT – Was there another Stacy Dragila in the house?

Who really knows, but Jenny Green of Grand Island, Nebraska might just be a candidate down the road. She did 13-3 and 13-2 in pre-Raleigh meets but settled for a 12-8 and a quarter triumph here.
Sharing the first-place height with Green – but with more misses on the way –was Julene Bailey of Nampa, Idaho.
A 12-4 ½ leap got the bronze for Concord, Mass. junior Anna McFarlane.

TRIPLE JUMP – After a third place in Friday’s long jump, Plano, Texas junior Erica McLain hop-step-jumped to gold at 43 feet and an inch for a meet record. With one more year in the schoolgirl ranks, the US record (44-2 ¼ by Yehlindria Spears in 2001) will clearly be endangered.
The 1999 meet record of 41-10 ¾ was obliterated by McLain, but no one else was close to this standard.
Californian Gayle Hunter (40-0 ¾) took silver and Floridian Nicole Moore (39-1) the bronze.

SHOT PUT – Michelle Carter had extended the national record to 54-10 ¾ back on May 9, and there was every hope of her extending the record some more, say into the 55’s or 56’s,
Alas, it didn’t happen. The Red Oak, Texas senior – bound for the U. of Texas in September – settled for a 54-5 ¼ victory, while outclassing the rest of the field by a whopping 4 feet, 4 inches.
Daughter of Michael Carter – the ’84 Olympian, San Francisico 49er Super Bowler and USA boys shot record-holder whose national record of 81-3 ½ is now 24 years old – she put five of her six throws beyond the best effort of second-place Elizabeth Podominick of Lakeville, Minnesota (50-1 ¼.)
Lakeville made it a 2-3 finish, too, with Lindsey Schultz (46-2 ¾) one spot back of teammate Podominick. Just nine other girls were able to throw longer than 40 feet.

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