photo by John Dye
The super-swift Beach Pack girls of Poly Long Beach
CA have labored in the shadow of California super stars too long.
First it was Monique Henderson and Lashinda Demus, and now it
is Allyson Felix. But Shalonda Solomon is leading the Poly girls
into the sunshine in their own right.
At the Arcadia Invitational, Solomon led Poly to
a national record and an all time US#2 performance. Her 51.4 anchor
lap in the 800 meter sprint medley stunned the crowd Friday night
April 11, coming against Wilson Long Beach, which had its own
plan to break the record. Poly finished in 1:38.73, taking more
than 3 seconds off the old record (1:42.08 Berkeley CA 2000 and
1:42.0 Hawthorne CA 1987).
On Saturday night, Solomon finished up a 45.01 4x100,
third fastest ever run, making Poly the second fastest US girls
4x100 squad ever (44.70 St. Bernard, Playa del Rey CA 1997). Oh,
and she also finished second to Allyson Felix in the 100 in 11:45
+3.0 just a few minutes after the 4x100, and she finished up the
evening by anchoring the winning 4x400 (3:43.03).
Shalonda Solomon past performances
Event Mark Meet
2003 Indoor
G-200 23.98 2/15/2003, Simplot Games ID, # 3
2002 Outdoor
G-100 11.64 +0.2 7/12/2002, Bahamas Pre-World , # 3
G-200 23.69 -0.1 p 6/21/2002, USA Jr Nationals CA, # 4
G-100 11.54 +1.2 6/21/2002, USA Jr Nationals CA, # 3
G-200 23.38 +1.3 6/8/2002, Golden West Inv CA, # 1
G-100 11.46 +2.5 6/8/2002, Golden West Inv CA, # 2
G-200 23.36 -1.3 6/1/2002, State Meet CA, # 2
G-100 11.64 -1.3 6/1/2002, State Meet CA, # 2
G-200 23.56 +0.4 5/24/2002, SS Masters CA, # 2
G-100 11.62 -0.8 5/24/2002, SS Masters CA, # 2
G-200 23.31 +1.7 5/18/2002, SS Division 1 CA, # 1
G-100 11.51 +1.4 5/18/2002, SS Division 1 CA, # 1
G-100 11.66 +0.3 4/20/2002, Mt. SAC Relays CA, # 1
G-100 11.82 +0.2 4/13/2002, Arcadia Inv Div CA, # 2
G-200 23.78 3/30/2002, Trabuco Hills Inv CA, # 1
G-100 11.72 +1.4 3/30/2002, Trabuco Hills Inv CA, # 1
2002 Indoor
G-60 7.58 p 3/10/2002, Armory-NSI NY, # 5
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photo by Mike Leary
It was the best 3200 ever, and Chris Solinsky was
far the best in the race. Known as "the Rocket," Solinsky
treated the overflow Arcadia Invitational crowd April 12 to a magnificent
long burn instead of brief fireworks. Four laps in 4:27 set the
stage. Solinsky then took command and turned four successively faster
laps for a 4:16 negative split and a winning time of 8:43.24, leading
11 runners under the magic 9-minute mark.
It was the fourth national win of Solinsky's senior
year, with outdoor post season championships still to come. He has
swept the board whenever coming down from the Northland to meet
the rest of the country -- Great American, Foot Locker Cross Country,
Nike Indoor Championships, and Arcadia. It may be time to start
comparing Solinsky to "Distance Gods" Dathan Ritzenhein
and Alan Webb as celebrated on DyeStat 2 years ago. Solinsky's time
places him in the top 15 all time US 3200/2-milers in Jack Shepard's
HIGH SCHOOL TRACK annual.
And Chris was actually disappointed when he heard the race time
-- he wanted sub 8:40 and he missed Thom Hunt's 27-year-old Arcadia
record by less than a second.
Chris
Solinsky past performances
Event Mark Meet
2003 Indoor
B-2Mile 8:56.26 3/16/2003, Nike Indoor Champ. MD, # 1
2002 Cross Country
Time Dist Pos/Meet
14:41 5k 1 @ FootLocker Nationals CA 12/14/02
14:49 5k 1 @ FootLocker MW seeded WI 11/30/2002
14:54 5k 1 @ State Div 1 WI 11/2/2002
15:27 5k 1 @ Sectional WI 10/26/2002
15:28 5k 1 @ Wisc Valley Conf WI 10/19/2002
15:13 5k 1 @ Rapids Inv WI 10/12/2002
16:05 5k 1 @ Great American Inv NC 9/28/2002
15:36 5k 1 @ Smiley Inv WI 9/21/2002
15:20 5k 1 @ DC Everest Inv WI 9/17/2002
15:11 5k 1 @ SPASH Inv WI 9/14/2002
15:34 5k 1 @ Neenah Inv WI 9/7/2002
2002 Outdoor
Event Mark Meet
B-2Mile 8:59.92 6/15/2002, AOC National NC, # 2
B-Mile 4:12.14 6/15/2002, AOC National NC, # 5
B-2Mile 9:01.59 c 6/1/2002, State Meet Div 1 WI, # 1
B-Mile 4:11.1 c 6/1/2002, State Meet Div 1 WI, # 1
B-2Mile 9:16.04 c 5/15/2002, Wisc Valley Conf WI, # 1
B-800 1:53.7 5/10/2002, Monona Grove Inv WI, #
B-2Mile 8:51.64 c 4/13/2002, Arcadia Inv Div CA, # 1
2002 Indoor
B-Mile 4:10.11 c 3/23/2002, Stevens Point Inv WI, # 1
B-800 1:54.15 3/23/2002, Stevens Point Inv WI, # 1
B-2Mile 9:01.96 3/10/2002, PG-NIC MD, # 2
B-2Mile 9:14.51 2/9/2002, Midwest Indoor NE, # 1
B-Mile 4:20.74 2/9/2002, Midwest Indoor NE, # 1
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