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| OPEN DIVISION -- UMS-Wright Preparatory School -- Friday, April 4, 2008 @ 3PM
INVITATIONAL DIVISION -- St. Paul's Episcopal School -- Saturday, April 5, 2008@ 1PM
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Goodman and Campbell are the best of the best
 | Chalonda Goodman with her award.
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By SteveU, Photos by John Nepolitan
One DyeStat Athlete of the Meet award candidate didn’t “need” her leg on the 4x400 to earn her honor. Another, however, had to make a final statement in that final event – and did so – but was still nosed out for the choice.
That’s the way things wound up at the 16th Mobile Challenge of Champions Saturday night at the E.E. Delany Stadium at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile, with Chalonda Goodman GA and Tyler Campbell AL earning top honors. It was a little bit different kind of day … a day where many of the field eventers didn’t get their typical afternoon in the spotlight because of a 2-hour weather-related delay … a day where it wasn’t hot, it wasn’t cold, it wasn’t really windy and it wasn’t calm … a day where the fairest skinned athlete or fan could be without sunscreen all day under the thickest of clouds, but where not a real drop of rain fell during seven hours of invitational action (after at least a few inches the night before).
And it was a meet where the top-end quality suffered a bit in some events because of the withdrawal (in some cases without explanation) of several top athletes – a tough deal for a meet whose director goes above and beyond the call of duty to promote it locally. But there were still very good performances and great performances … and, “Even in the events that weren’t the fastest, we had great competition,” said meet director Steve Schoenwald.
Newnan GA jr Chalonda Goodman, however, was the fastest, and because she proved it over and over again, she won the girls’ DyeStat Athlete of the Meet award. First, the World Youth Champs 200 silver medalist handled the final leg of her team’s 4x100 relay, striding smoothly across the line with the stick for her team’s 48.07 win.
 | Morgan wins the deuce.
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Then it was really showtime in the 100, as Goodman cut through an 0.8 headwind to an 11.54, the fastest legal mark in the country this spring. Later in the meet, at twice the distance, she rolled to a solid 23.93 (-0.3w), winning by more than a second.
Finally, it was the 4x400. Fans were excited to see what she could do, especially as Newnan lagged behind and thoughts of a dramatic comeback seemed in the works. Remember, although the 400 is outside her normal racing zone, Chalonda’s brother Cedric was a 46-flat guy as a prep. But the gap was way too much when she got the stick and the statuesque junior was pretty fatigued as it was. She ran 57-high and called it a day.
Goodman’s sprint quadruple was hardly the only performance that was MVP-worthy. In the mile, Pass Christian MS soph Cory McGee didn’t get the hoped-for competition from Emily Reese (the GA star is recovering from World Cross trip), but still won a classic race. The meet-record holder controlled things from the start, then used a move at 220 to go to counter a drive by Mountain Brook fr Catherine Diethelm. Still, surprising Collins Hill GA jr Amanda Winslow came up in the last 100 and pushed McGee all the way to the tape. Corey destroyed her meet record with a 4:50.67 and Winslow clocked a huge PR 4:50.88.
The highly anticipated 2-mile saw Malia Cali explode from the gun and rip the first 440 in 69 seconds, stringing out the field. A similar tactic (if not quite as fast) worked for the St. Thomas Aquinas LA soph at NSIC as she ran away and hid from the field. But her prime competition was not easily dissuaded. Mountain Brook jr Madeline Morgan, continuing an amazing year, caught Cali after just about 5.5 laps and pulled away to a 10-second, US#1 10:29.26 victory.
Some of the other fine performers on the girls side included Pine Forest FL soph Dacia Mays (55.57 400, 56.25 FAT 4x400 leg on winning team), Mountain Brook fr Marie Demedicis (2:11.35 800), and American Christian AL jr Bekah Hoppis (meet record 134-09 JT).
| Campbell soaring.
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The deciding performance for the DyeStat Athlete of the Meet honors on the boys side came early and off the track on the high jump apron. Cordova AL sr Tyler Campbell and Hoover AL jr Anthony May each came into the meet with PRs of 6-10. Both lived up to their credentials with clearances at that PR height. The bar moved to 7-0 and Campbell got over to become the newest member of that exclusive club, tying Donte Nall’s meet record. May could not negotiate the height, so the bar moved to 7-2. The champion couldn’t make it, but was quite pleased with what he did do. The top performer choice for the boys was much less clear, though. Coming into the meet, the biggest buzz was over Tavaris Tate, the Starkville MS junior who had dramatically lowered his PR the previous month – over two meets – from 48.1 to US#2 46.91. He wasn’t able to quite match that Saturday, but started his triple by beating a good field with a solid 48.00. In the 200, not quite feeling up to par, he was unable to hold off Northeast LA soph Dennis Richardson, who ripped an impressive-for-a-soph 21.89 to edge Tate by such a thin margin that the timer had to go to 1000ths of a second to tab the winner.
 | Tate enroute to 400 victory.
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Tate had one more shot for a win and he more than made good with a reported 47.6 anchor on Starkville’s 4x400 that finished a victorious 3:18.78 effort. A pretty good triple, and definitely the track performer of the day, even if Campbell’s effort was deemed slightly superior.
Back on the field, another super effort came from Daphne sr Kyle Smith in the javelin. Already the US#2 with 205-04, he stuck the spear between 189 and 193 feet on all four throws, with a winner of 193-05. He was just 17 inches off the meet record. As for great competition, along with the girls mile and boys 200, how about Jasmine Patton’s .05 win over Neal Tisher in the girls 100H and Donte McConico by an even narrower .02 over Orlandus Harris in the 110H? Or Janessa Doucett’s .08 triumph over Kiana Cooler in the girls 300H? There was Marshall Dalessandro’s come-from-behind win in the 800, Catholic BR (La.) taking the 4x800 in the final straight, and Austin Duckworth holding on to the tape in the boys two-mile as three others ran out of real estate.
In the end, everyone stayed dry (except for their shoes) and it was another great day in Mobile, as they all are in one of the best promoted meets in the country. But the best days belonged to Chalonda and Tyler.
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