 |
NSIC |
|---|
Friday
a three medley affair that The Ringling Brothers, Barnum, and Bailey would have been proud of. Suffern NY girls just miss DMR record, West Catholic wins 3rd straight SMR, Forys' 4:05.5 anchor.
by Steve Lurie and Matt Soja
Opening day of the National Scholastic Indoor Championships might have seemed like a three-ring circus, or even a 23-ring circus. Actually it was more like a three medley affair that The Ringling Brothers, Barnum, and Bailey would have been proud of.
The light shone brightly on the girls’ medley relays – the distance one by Suffern, NY, and the sprint variety by West Catholic of Philadelphia -- and Colts Neck, NJ, junior Craig Forys on the anchor leg of the boys’ distance medley.
Suffern fell 0.31 seconds short of the national record in the distance medley, running 11:35.74. West Catholic continued an extraordinary winning streak. The Philadelphians won the indoor sprint medley for the third straight year, equaling the streak still alive outdoors. They ran a nation’s leading time of 3:57.83. Forys took the baton for the anchor 1,600 leg in next to last place, 150 meters behind. Slowly but surely – okay, not so slowly but absolutely surely – he closed the gap and eventually finished third, legging a 4:05.5 carry, 0.2 faster than he had run at Easterns last week.
| Suffern's Caroline Heidt hands off to |
Fordham wins furious finish with Monsignor Farrell in Boys DMR  |
GIRLS 5000M
Defending champion Cassie Hintz from Maine was favored to win another national championship, and she did not disappoint. Although Canadian Stephanie Smith opened a four second lead early, Hintz caught up and passed her on the seventh lap, and from then on it was a one-woman show. Running even 40-second laps, Hintz was on pace to break Briana Jackucewicz’s national record of 16:43.02 until the beginning of the third mile when the lactic acid and lapped runners teamed up to slow her down by one or two seconds per lap. Nevertheless, she kept extending her lead and with one kilometer to go had lapped the entire field. Hintz repeated as the national champion, winning in 16:50.08. Her splits by kilometer were 3:20.7, 3:19.3, 3:21.2, 3:22.8, and 3:25.9
The satisfied champion said, “Defending the title was more important to me than the time. I was not worried about Smith going out fast – I knew I had to run my own race. I always try to run even splits.” She admitted that lapping people slowed her physically to a certain degree, but it also helped her mentally. The Wisconsin-bound senior had already run a 16:45 in Boston earlier this winter, but this meet was the main focus of her indoor season.
Interestingly, the Maine runner won the race in flats because, as she admitted, “I never wear spikes.” Since she prefers longer races, she will attempt the Olympic Development 10,000 meters at the Penn Relays.
BOYS SPRINT MEDLEY
In a fascinating race down the stretch, Simon Gratz PA outleaned Warwick Valley NY 3:26.79 to 3:26.91, becoming only the seventh and eighth teams to ever break the 3:27 barrier indoors. Colonie HS grabbed the third spot from the unseeded heat with a 3:30.63
GIRLS SPRINT MEDLEY
Defending champion West Catholic, PA, dominated here, running 3:57.83, the ninth fastest time ever. Sprinters (Simone Carter 25.5, Christiana Taylor 25.5, and Kneshia Sheard 55.1) gave them a substantial lead over Boys and Girls NY, setting up Latavia Thomas to run alone to the finish, anchoring in 2:11.6. Boys and Girls finished in 4:01.28 and were edged out for second by Logan HS from California that ran a 4:00.82 in an unseeded heat. The fastest 800m split was recorded by Samantha Gawrych of Westerly RI, who anchored in 2:06.9 to bring her team to fourth place overall in 4:01.42
BOYS DISTANCE MEDLEY
This promised to be the deepest boys event of the day with four of the five best teams in the nation on the track – Ridgewood NJ, Fordham Prep NY, Colts Neck NJ, and Monsignor Farrell NY. Ridgewood, Fordham, and Farrell duked it out with one another for the first three legs, but when the milers took the baton, it was strictly between the two New Yorkers. John Bradley of Fordham edged away from Farrell’s Dan Lewis to claim the title in 10:14.68 to 10:14.99.
Yet the biggest star on the anchor leg was undoubtedly Colts Neck’s Craig Forys. He virtually duplicated his feat from Easterns, taking the stick in next-to-last place and bringing his team up to third, recording a 4:05.5 carry. His lap splits were 29.1, 31.2 (1:00.3), 30.8, 31.7 (2:02.8), 31.3, 30.9 (3:05.0), 30.1, and 30.5.
Fordham Prep’s splits were Terrence Egan 3:09.1, Matthew Keefer 51.6, Brian Doherty 1:54.6, and John Bradley 4:19.1. The team is taking a recovery day Saturday to have a shot at the 4x800m title Sunday.
Farrell boys split unofficially Vito Cannavo 3:08.8, Gordon 52.3, Jeff Carbonella 1:55.1, and Dan Lewis 4:18.6
Colts Neck’s first three legs were Brenden Krewer 3:15.6, Evan Stivala 51.4, and Shane Hart 2:06.9
Pre-race favorite Ridgewood took fourth in 10:20.85, with Byron Williams leading off in 3:08.7, Jeremy Schmidt splitting a 51.6, Niall Buckley 1:58.7, and Mike Cator 4:21.9
GIRLS DISTANCE MEDLEY
Suffern, NYwas the heavy favorite to win, but their performance exceeded most fans’ expectations. Having run 11:45 early in the season, they came amazingly close to the national record set here two years ago by Mountain View of Orem, UT. After for the early stages when Shelby Greany battled for pole position with Bay Shore’s Sarah McCurdy, the girls in the blue battled the clock y themselves for the rest of the race. When anchor Kara McKenna got the stick, she was 8 seconds ahead of the second place team (Roxbury NJ), and as she went out in 32, 66, and 2:20 the gap between her and the rest of the world became a chasm. With the crowd cheering her on and looking at the clock, she powered down the final straightaway and leaned to the tape. After a few moments of waiting for the official time, it became apparent that the time of 11:35.74 was 0.31 seconds off of Mountain View’s mark.
Yet the champions were not terribly disappointed with the miss. Mc Kenna said, “Breaking the record was our best case scenario, but we just hoped to run fast because we have three seniors on the relay.” She knew she could recover from going out fast, so she was not afraid when she heard her splits. She dropped about 3 seconds from her split on the 11:45 relay.
Suffern’s splits were Shelby Greany 3:34.3, Deanna Vinson 58.4, Caroline Heidt 2:11.4, and McKenna 4:51.2
Behind Suffern there was a close battle for second with the 2004 Footlocker champion Aislinn Ryan moving into second early into the anchor leg and holding on to claim silver for Warwick Valley in 11:45.97. The Purple Wave’s splits were Tori Pennings 3:39.6, Claire Pettit 58.5,Kristen Peluso 2:19.6, and Ryan 4:48.4
Roxbury finished third in 11:48.02 with splits of Ariann Neutts 3:36.7, Sarah Tencza 59.2, Ashley Cromartie 2:16.6, and Jenn Ennis 4:55.5
Boys 5,000-Meters
Mohamed Ige of Littleton, CO, seemed to have this race all to himself, cruising to a huge lead and holding it through the first two miles. Then Jay Koloseus of Guilford, CT, and Jeffrey Helmer of Snohomish, WA, took up the chase in earnest. They caught him on the home straightaway with just over a lap remaining. Koloseus passed Ige on the back straight, but Ige had a little more in the tank and retook the lead at the final turn to defend the title he won last year. His winning time was 14:57.26. Koloseus was 2nd in 14:58.15. Helmer took third in 15:00.39.
Boys 4 x 400-Meter Relay Trials
The top seven qualifiers all ran under 3:20.40. Transit Tech of New York City led the way with the nation’s second fastest time of 3:18.49. National leader Dematha was the fourth fastest qualifier.
Girls 4 x 400-Meter Relay Trials
It took 3:58.49 to advance to Sunday’s final. The favorites all survived.
Boys High Jump
The first eight jumpers all cleared 6-8 ¼ with Brandon Fitch from Beaver Creek, OH, winning on fewer misses. Terrance Austin of Long Beach, CA, was second, followed by Joshua Butler of Glassboro, NJ.
Boys Long Jump
Will Coppage of Alexandria, LA, wasn’t able to get the national record he sought, but he uncorked the best jump of this winter at 24-11, improving his previous season’s best of 24-7 ¾. That put him 12th on the all-time indoor list. He won by 14 and ¼ inches, totally dominating the competition.
Girls Long Jump
Favorite Celeste Holder of Parsippany, NJ, jumped 19-5 ¼ to beat New Rochelle’s Lynne
Layne. The New Yorker jumped 19-2 ¾.
Girls Shot Put
Alynn Laughlin was an easy winner with a put of 47-8. That was almost two feet farther than Kaitlyn Andrews of Toronto who was second at 45-9 ¼.