USATF - Junior Olympics

Hughes Stadium - Morgan State University - Baltimore, MD

July 25th - 30th, 2006


Day Six - SuperStar Sunday at USATF JOs - April Williams and Casey Roche, Plus Great Doublers

By Steve Underwood

The biggest performances to come out of the final day of the 2006 USATF Junior Olympics were definitely the sky-scraping 17-05 in the YM pole vault by Casey Roche (unattached/Mountain View St. Francis CA jr) and the sizzling 13.07w over the YW 100 hurdles by April Williams (unattached/Dallas Skyline TX jr). But they were far from the only impressive stories. Sunday was a day of doubles, comebacks, farewells, and big surprises for prep level athletes.

The doublers ruled much of the day, no doubt, and two of them came from California. Ebony Collins (Quiet Fire/Long Beach Wilson CA jr.) actually went for it in four YW events, all with Sunday finals. Her 2nd win , a dominating PR in the YW 400, opened more eyes than what she did in her specialty, the same distance over barriers. Terry Prentice (Southern California Cheetahs/Diamond Ranch CA jr.), having suffered through a year of inconsistency and mild disappointments, showed what he can really do in the YM 110 hurdles, adding to his long jump victory the day before.

Two more doubles came from Erica Alexander (Texas Storm TC/Friendswood Clear Brook TX soph), coming back in the IG 100 after taking Saturday’s 200, and William Wynne (Titans Track/McEachern GA soph), who continued to reveal his stunning versatility in the IB 110H and 400H. And there were also the stories of Kenyanna “Kiki” Wilson, David Klech, and Sam Borchers, all who had unique tales to tell.

 
Sunday's best: At left, Casey Roche CA poses next to the sign that shows his 5.31m/17-5 PV clearance (Photo Mo Haneef). At right, April Williams TX (shown here winning NON) surged into the all-time top five in the 100H (Photo Vic Sailer).

The Eye-Poppers: Williams and Roche

No one shook up the yearly or all-time lists like April Williams and Casey Roche.

Saturday, Williams responded to the 13.53 laid down by Shalina Clarke IL in the first heat of the YW 100H by blasting a US#1 13.35 (1.1w) in the second, equaling #10 all-time. Sunday, Clarke and Williams’ other main competitor, Jacquelyn Coward TN (13.72 in heats), both rode a 3.1 wind to run faster than they ever have before (13.32 and 13.27, respectively).

But Williams was in another world. The near-perfection she showed gave her a jaw-dropping 13.07, the best clocking in any conditions in 10 years. Only HSR-holder Candy Young PA (legal 12.95 way back in 1979), Dominique Calloway CO (13.03w in 1996), and Joanna Hayes CA (13.06w in 1995) have run faster.

Williams said she “surprised herself” with the fast prelim. “I’ve just been working extra hard, mostly on my speed.” Then when she saw the scoreboard clock after the final, she said she thought the numbers weren’t correct at first and would be changed.

Still, this is a girl who set the freshman national record at 13.55 two years ago and has been in 13.4-13.5 territory ever since. It was time for a breakthrough. “There is a feeling that this is where I should be,” she admitted.

Roche came into the meet with a recent spate of PRs and a deep family history in track. Regarding the former, he had upped his HS season best from 16-7 to 16-09.25 and 17-00, joining the unwieldy group of 17-footers this year across the country. As far as the family, well, fans across the country will now know what they know in CA and NJ.

  • Casey’s dad, also Casey, is a former Rutgers U. PV star
  • His mom, the former Debbie Deutsch, was a sprint/hurdles/relay star at the same school and landed on the cover of Runner’s World once.
  • His uncle, Mike Roche, also starred at Rutgers, but as a distance runner. He eventually made the 1976 Olympic team in the steeplechase and once set the US 10-mile record.
  • And … Casey’s grandfather, Gene, competed in hurdles and horizontal jumps at UCLA!

Still, it took a lot more than good genes for Casey Jr. Sunday when he was faced with the bar at a meet record 17-02 (5.23m) in 95 degree heat. He long had the event won and had already taken a lot of jumps. After a 16-10.75 clearance (5.15), he was going to go for 17-01, but informed that 17-02 would set a new record, he made that his next goal. It took three attempts, but the backstretch crowd let out a mighty roar when he finally scaled it.

Then Roche went for 17-05 (5.31). Again, two misses. Again, a third-try clearance. Now Roche was the second best vaulter in the country. Could he make #1? Three attempts at 17-07 fell short, but Roche had gone from being one of a big handful of  vaulters to the nation’s top returnee when he starts his senior year.

Double Trouble

Ebony Collins actually went for four individual YW events at JOs – and all four finals came off on Sunday. While she was 6th in both the 100 (11.69) and the 100H (13.90w), it was her longer races, as usual, where she really made her mark. At the beginning of the day, she motored to a US#1 57.78 over the 400H, beating both Coward and Williams. The problem is, Collins has raised such high expectations with her 55.96 at World Youth last year, that a 57-high doesn’t generate a lot of excitement.

The flat 400 was a different story. With a blistering 52.33, Collins dominated a pretty good field and improved her PR and US#3 mark. Sa’de Williams CA was back in 53.29 for 2nd. Afterward, she enjoyed finally being through with her week’s work and joked with officials and friends. It appears that one of Ebony’s biggest fans is Miami’s super Midget Robin Reynolds (55.01 400 as a 1st-year Midget in 2005!), who was hanging out with her, but the truth was the other way around, too.

“She inspires ME,” said the older athlete, “and make sure you put that down.”

Collins was hobbling around at that point, leading one to wonder why she doing so many events. But it turned out be a modest hamstring issue from earlier in the day and a bruised ankle from hitting a hurdle. Not enough to stop a championship quest, apparently. She was much less confident after USATF Juniors, but her training has intensified since then and her world champion mojo is returning. “This year I’ve had some knee problems early and I was not focused as much,” she said. “I wanted to rest myself. My confidence was not as high, but now it’s coming back.”

And by the way, she added, her fast 400s lately (she also ran 52.66 at Youth Nationals) have been inspired by the fact that “they didn’t put me in the (4x4) relay pool in Africa (World Youth last year) and I wanted to show them I can run this event.”

Terry Prentice has had his disappointments in big meets this year, but he was as good as gold in the YM 110 hurdles and the long jump (a legal 24-01.25). In the hurdles, especially, he moved up an echelon with his US#4 13.59 (1.8w). It may not seem like a huge improvement from his 13.72 PR, but it puts him right there with guys like NON champ Johnny Dutch going into next year.

“I’ve pretty much been doing the same thing I’ve done all year,” he said of his recent training. “But I got a good start today. I thought Darius Reed (2nd in 13.63) might make a move on me in the middle of the race, but I was able to dig down and keep it up. I had that snap and I had my three steps down.”

If watching Erica Alexander come down the stretch to score a narrow sprint victory Sunday looked familiar, well, it was. Saturday, she had edged Brianna Atkins and Victoria Jordan by .03 and .05 with her 23.93 in the IG 200. Sunday, it was a narrow win over Jordan again in the IG 100, 11.57w-11.60w (2.9w).

“It wasn’t my fastest, but it’s the first year I’ve had a double here since my second year in Midgets,” she said. “I didn’t tighten up, but stayed relaxed the whole time and really threw my shoulder into the finish line (for the lean).”

Injuries helped conspire to keep David Klech from becoming the next prep sub-50 400 hurdler, but William Wynne could fill those shoes. Sunday, the Titans super soph blazed to decisive victories in both the IB 400H and 110H, hitting PRs and youth and meet records with a US#3 51.56 and 13.83.

“I’ve just been training really, really hard, and working on my stride pattern,” he said. “I was able to keep 13 steps for the first half of the race.”

If Wynne someday makes it in the record book, he’ll not only have his own hard work and talent to thank, but a coach who has been there and done that. His Titans coach is none other than former women’s 400H world-record holder Kim Batten.

Meanwhile, Klech himself was clocking a 51.61 in the YM 400H. Running for Classic Track, the California HS (San Ramon CA) sr. had as an acute sense as anyone of the weightiness of making the transition from the prep to collegiate ranks. The sole reason he continued his season to this point – after missing the US team for the World Juniors in June – was to make an exit he could be more at peace with.

 “This is definitely my last high school meet ever and I wanted to end it on a good note,” he said. “I wasn’t super happy with my time, but I wanted to try and fix what I messed up on at USATF Juniors and I felt like I pretty much did that. At Juniors, I felt like I didn’t quite run my race and tried to run the same race as the college guys.”

And That’s Not All …

As for surprises, what about Kenyanna Wilson notching the biggest victory of her prep career in the YW 100? After getting 6th in the 200, but having qualified 2nd in the 100 with a windy PR 11.27 (4.4w), on Sunday she blasted a legal PR and US#5 11.36 (1.6w) to stun NON champ and World Junior qualifier Gabby Mayo (3rd, 11.59) and the rest of a top-notch field.

One of those who Wilson conquered that did not seem disappointed was Shayla Mahan MI, who had already PR’d in her 200 bronze performance. “She’s my friend and I’m happy she won,” she said.

“Kiki” herself, the Peoria AZ jr running for Rising Sun, was obviously happy to have won, but seemed more concerned with her execution than how her competition did around her. “I’m just really happy to have a good showing,” she said. “I didn’t realize I’d won until they announced it. At Great Southwest, I was kind of searching for people and that doesn’t work as well. When I practice, there’s certain things I try and do, and I run to execute those things.”

And if all that wasn’t enough, there was the “return” of Sam Borchers to the national stage. A month ago Borchers stunned the track world at Indianapolis when he finished 3rd in the USATF Junior 1500 behind AJ Acosta and Andrew Bumbalough. Except almost no one was stunned, at first, because they thought he was some college freshman who had simply made a nice improvement from being a relatively unknown 4:10 miler or something. No, we were amazed to discover, instead he was a high school junior in Yellow Springs OH who made a monster improvement from 4:12.82 to the equivalent of a 4:04.42!!!

Sunday, Borchers came back to the national stage a little wary (and weary) of the expectations that have exploded in the weeks since then. “I felt like I had to run under 3:50 again, or at least win big,” he said.

Sub-3:50 was a tough proposition in the blistering 95 degrees of high noon in Baltimore, so he settled for the latter. He went out with the field in 2:11 for 800, then was 2:58 with a lap to go. Then he put the afterburners on, and 57 seconds later crossed in 3:55.58. Andrew Wheating was 2nd in 3:58.31.

(a wrap-up of the rest of the JO meet, with events not mentioned in this or previous reports, coming tonight)

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