Preview

Great Expectations:
Bianca Knight and Will Coppage seeking national records.

One can't escape the feeling that if Charles Dickens were alive today, he'd love Bianca Knight and Will Coppage. They share Great Expectations. This Southern duo faces a reality check at the 23rd annual National Scholastic Indoor Championships this weekend at New York City's Armory Track & Field Center.

"My goal is to set national records in both," says Knight of the 60- and 200-meter dashes.

"I hope to set a national record," echoes Coppage, of the long jump.

Coppage (right), from Alexandria, LA, is perhaps the more ambitious -- one could say he hath greater expectations -- although he seeks just a single national record. The country's leading jumper this winter with a leap of 24-7 3/4, he will need to improve almost two feet to break the mark of 26-6 1/2 set in 1989 at Penn State by Dion Bentley of Pittsburgh's Penn Hills High School. His event starts at 2:30 Friday, with the final to follow. A lot of sand should fly.

Knight (left), from Ridgeland, MS, will explode out of the blocks at noon Friday in the 60 trials. The semis are Saturday, also at noon, with the 200 trials set for 55 minutes later. The 60 final is at 12:20 Sunday, an hour before the 200 is decided. Knight arrives with nation's best marks of 7.25 and 23.26. She's oh-so-close to the records of 7.19 run by Ashley Owens of Denver at Simplot 2 years ago and 23.14 by Allyson Felix of Los Angeles in Mexico City in 2003.

The dreams of more than 2,200 other athletes will unfold during the three-day competition. The strong fields include national leaders in four other boys individual events, three relays, and two more individuals lead their events at distances that won't be competed in this meet. The girls events feature four other national-leading individuals, three leading relays, and one more individual leader at a distance not being run.

The deepest and most competitive event should be the boys 4 x 200-meter relay, featuring the top six teams in the nation, separated by only 1.63 seconds. Simon Gratz of Philadelphia leads the list at 1:28.42 -- the national record is 1:27.09 set by Deep Creek of Chesapeake, VA, the same day Richards set the girls 200 standard. Irvington, NJ, comes in with a 1:28.95, Transit Tech of New York City is at 1:29.08, followed by Dematha of MD at 1:29.88, Colonie, NY, at 1:29.98, and Barbe, of Lake Charles, LA, at 1:30.04, anchored by national 55-meter dash leader Trey Harts. He will be defending his 200-meter title of last year and also try for the 60.

The boys 400 and sprint medley each feature the top four nationally ranked athletes/teams. J.T. Scheuerman of Littleton, CO, leads the way in the 400 at 47.18, Lajerald Betters (47.82) of Waco, TX, Nate Anderson (47.90) of Benson Poly in Portland, OR, and Clemore Henry (47.98) of Transit Tech surely are in the hunt. Henry is the top 300 runner in the nation at 33.91.

The sprint medley leaders are Warwick Valley, NY, with 3:32.28, Simon Gratz (3:33.05), South Shore of Brooklyn, NY, (3:34.01), and Somers, NY, (3:34.11) following.

Evander Wells of Kentucky Select leads the top three nationally ranked 200 runners, having blasted a 21:51. Scheuerman has posted a 21.70 and defender Harts 21.75.

Dematha (3:16.39) and Transit Tech (3:18.73) lead the nation's 4 x 400 and will battle against #7 Simon Gratz (3:21.19).

Other national leaders among the boys entered are triple jumper Gary Jones of Webster-Schroeder, NY, at 50-1 and Lionel Williams of St. Peter's, Staten Island, the 600 leader at 1:20.04, who will be contesting the 800.

Knight, who also leads the 55 this winter at 6.79, will be chased by Jeneba Tarmoh of Mt. Pleasant of San Jose, CA, second-ranked in the 55, 0.07 behind, and Shayla Mahan of Mumford -- gotta get one of those t-shirts to look like comedian Eddie Murphy -- of Detroit, #3 nationally in the 60 with 7.36. Tarhoh and Mahan lead those ranked 3-10 nationally in the 200 -- all of them in the meet -- with times of 23.94 and 23.96 respectively.

Suffern, NY, is the national leader in both the 4 x 800 and distance medley relays and are favored here with times of 9:03.36 and 11:45.73. Westerly, RI, leads the sprint medley at 4:05.66 and will have to hold off #2 Boys and Girls HS of Brooklyn, authors of a 4:06.85.

The 60-meter hurdles will be a showdown between national 55m hurdle leader Gabby Mayo (7.88) of Raleigh, NC, and 60m hurdle leader Jacquelyn Coward (8.41 and 7.92 for #3 in the 55 hurdles) of Tennessee's Knoxville West,

Latavia Thomas of Philadelphia's West Catholic comes into the 800 leading the nation with a 2:09.70. Ke'Niy Richardson of Holy Names, GA, leads the nation in the triple jump with a leap of 41-10 1/4. Samantha Gawrych of Westerly, RI, who leads the nation's 1,000-meter runners at 2:46.66, will contest the mile here.

Two nationally recognized distance runners will be on display. They are 2004 Footlocker winner Aislinn Ryan of Warwick Valley and Mohamed Ige of Denver (CO) South.

But likely the main focus of the distance events will be on Colts Neck, NJ, junior Craig Forys -- he is running the distance medley relay which his team is not likely to win (as if he needs more incentive). Forys legged a superb 4:05.7 anchor 1,600 last Tuesday in the Easterns, for third place Colts Neck. The top four from that race are entered in NSIC -- Ridgewood, NJ (10:18.57 for #2 in the nation), Fordham Prep, NY (10:20.14), Colts Neck (10:20.70), and Monsignor Farrell of Staten Island (10:20.90). This race is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday.

Chances are Will Coppage will be taking a jump during this race. The long jump runway goes along the home stretch of the track, but in the opposite direction. Try to watch them both. Now, that's Great Expectations.