Sunday Sprint/Relay Report

By Matt Soja

Boys 4x800m
    
The Sunday meet started with a controversy when the lead-off runner for one of the best teams in the nation, Motor City TC (Detroit Mumford HS, Michigan), cut in from California start after the first turn instead of the second. Although there was a cone mistakenly placed at the end of the first turn, the leadoff runners in the outside lanes got clear instructions not to go inside until after the second turn, and nobody besides Motor City made that mistake. Knowing they would be disqualified, the Mumford anchor stepped off the track at the end of the first lap.
    
With Motor City out of the race, The Prep Track Club, made up of runners from Don Bosco NJ, grabbed the lead with Byram Hills and Burnt Hills following. Jason Baker kept Bosco in the lead until the last lap when he was passed by lead-offs from Dynizzle (North Penn, PA), Byram Hills, and the defending champions Warwick Valley. The leaders all hit the first exchange just under 2 minutes.
    
On the second leg Byram Hills established the early lead with Bosco’s Steve Wexler moving back into second and Warwick Valley in third. Halfway through his leg, Wexler moved Bosco back into the lead as Wille Ahearn from Danbury CT chased right on his heels. Ahearn gave Danbury the lead halfway through the race with Byram Hills hitting an almost identical split, Arlington coming from nowhere into third place, and Bosco falling back.
    
The third leg saw a total reshuffle up front with several teams still in the hunt for the crown. Cardinal O’Hara from Pennsylvania took over from Danbury early on, but as on the first two legs Bosco again made a huge move in the middle of the stage with Conor Sullivan giving them the lead on his second lap. It would not last long, however, as North Penn went ahead of Bosco on the third lap with Warwick Valley and Danbury also challenging. The Pennsylvania team with the nickname “Dynizzle” opened up a huge lead at the end of the leg with Bosco being passed by Danbury, Burnt Hills, and Warwick Valley. When North Penn’s anchor got the stick, he had a good 3-second lead on that pack.
    
North Penn would maintain the lead for the first three laps of the anchor leg, but the chasers gradually closed in. Danbury’s Parker Boudreau and Bosco’s Sharif Webb were within striking range as the bell rang for the last circuit of this exciting race. And Webb displayed his kicking prowess on that lap, passing North Penn before the last turn and pulling away to win by a second and a half in US#5 7:52.92. North Penn finished second in 7:54.39 with Danbury just behind them in 7:54.90.
    
It was not the end of it, however. The meet officials allowed Motor City to run in the second heat instead, and they took full advantage of it, winning it in 7:52.84, just a fraction of a second faster than Bosco. Their anchor Isaiah Ward sped towards the finish while eyeing the clock as his 1:54.4 leg apparently gave them the national championship by the slimmest of margins.
    
Their happiness would not last long, however. After some deliberations the referee disallowed Motor City’s performance because it was unfair to let them run twice due to their own fault. Thus the title returned to The Prep.
    
Don Bosco’s coach Rob DeCarlo reported their splits as follows: Jason Baker 2:00.2, Steve Wexler 2:01.8, Conor Sullivan 1:58.0, Sharif Webb 1:52.9
    
After receiving their gold medals and trophies, the elated Bosco harriers said they came into the meet hoping to break 7:53 and maybe win it, so the plan was completely fulfilled. Asked about how they felt about Motor City’s disqualification, they said they had enough confidence to beat anybody even if they raced them head to head. Webb added that even though he started his anchor leg about 4 seconds behind the leader, he knew he could catch him if he just moved with the chase pack. In fact, Webb’s previous personal best at the distance was only a 1:55.0, so it was a tremendous breakthrough, and it came at the best possible moment. As for their outdoor goals, the Prep runners said they hoped to run around 7:45. They will field either a 4x800 or a distance medley at the Penn Relays.
    
North Penn’s unofficial splits were 1:59.2, 2:01.2, 1:56.5, and 1:57.2.
    
Danbury’s splits: Doug Ronan 2:00.4, Willie Ahearn 1:57.8, Dan Bubniak 2:00.9, and Parker Boudreau 1:55.8.

Girls 4x800m
    
Pope John of New Jersey had run the second-fastest time in the nation this winter, winning the Eastern States crown with a state record of 9:06.94. So it was no wonder they took the lead right from the gun with Lauren Bariexca leading a loaded field of 14 teams in the seeded heat. The lead from North Penn followed her closely, taking over on the third lap. They would hand off in 2:16.2, virtually sharing the lead.
    
Sophomore Sarah Cariati would reestablish Pope John’s clear lead at the beginning of her leg. Lincoln-Sudbury from Massachussets would then overtake North Penn for second, but there was a wild pack of chasers right behind them. Cariati then gapped the field on her third lap, but they would reduce the deficit on the last circuit. Nevertheless, Cariati’s 2:15.9 kept the Jersey team in the lead with Warwick Valley moving into second.
    
Lara Heigis, running third leg for Pope John, tried to put some distance between herself and the rest from the start. Carmel from New York then showed its mettle with Ashley Maurer moving quickly into second place, closing the gap on Heigis, and then moving Carmel into the lead on her third lap. But then Warwick Valley’s Tori Pennings displayed a tremendous kick to put Purple Wave into the lead after three legs, with Pope John coming back to second and Carmel fading to third.
    
However, Carmel had their superstar Kristen Reese on the anchor, and she put on quite a show. She quickly moved past Pope John’s anchor Emily Carollo into second, closed on Warwick’s Claire Pettit, and on her third lap moved into the lead. At that point the race was over with Reese flying her last lap and just dipping under the 9-minute barrier, the first team in America to do so this winter, with 8:59.85. Warwick would hold onto second with US#3 9:02.65 with Pope John in third with yet again a New Jersey state record of 9:05.97
    
Carmel’s splits: Caity Tully 2:18.7, Catherine DeSalle 2:16.6, Ashley Maurer 2:16.8, Kristin Reese 2:07.7
    
Warwick Valley’s splits, as reported by their coach: Kristen Peluso 2:17.3, Lilian Greibesland 2:15.7, Tori Pennings 2:13.9, Claire Pettit 2:13.2
    
Pope John’s splits: Lauren Bariexca 2:16.2, Sarah Cariati 2:15.9, Lara Heigis 2:20.0, Emily Carrollo 2:13.9
    
After the race the Carmel champions said that breaking 9 minutes was their optimistic goal this season as their coach hoped for them to achieve it. Reese stated that although she is not conceited, she did have the confidence that she could catch the leaders thanks to her leg speed. But similarly to Webb’s, her race was also a big breakthrough with her previous best of merely 2:10.5. In fact, no one except Chanelle Price of PA has run faster for 800 in an open or relay race this year.  The Carmel stars would also like to also win the outdoor nationals, hopefully in the mid to low 8:50s.

Boys 4x400m
    
After Motor City MI ran the fastest time in the country, 3:18.84, in the qualifying round, the meet was expected to close with a bang. But few people expected such a resounding bang with so many teams involved and Motor City not even being one of them.
    
Taylor Sykes put DeMatha of Maryland in the early lead thanks to his 48.9, but South Shore NY was only a stride behind. The battle between the two tightened up on the second leg with Kemar Clarke, already a double gold-medalist in shuttle and open hurdles, bringing South Shore back into the lead with a speedy 48.9, to the delight of the New York fans.
    
DeMatha regained a slight lead on the third leg, but the gap between the first two teams and Speed City, CA was shrinking rapidly. And when their anchor Bryshon Nellum, who last spring was the fastest underclassman in the country with a 46.20, took the baton, he wasted no time in wowing the spectators with his breathtaking speed. Despite starting about two seconds behind the leaders, he caught up to them before the last turn and absolutely buried them down the last straightaway, anchoring in a sizzling 46.7 and winning the Long Beach team their second relay title of the afternoon.
    
Speed City’s 3:16.28 was the best time in the nation this winter and 5th best all-time. Their splits: Joey Hughes 50.3, Isaiah Green 49.8, Evant Orange 49.5, Nellum 46.7
    
DeMatha had to settle for silver for the second year in a row, running a 3:16.48, obviously US#2 this year. Their splits: Taylor Sykes 48.9, Chad Rogers 49.5, Travis McKinnon 49.7, Sean Suber 48.3
    
South Shore took third with 3:17.85, US#3 this winter. Splits: Sean Troop 49.3, Kemar Clarke 48.9, Shavar Watson 50.3, Rodney Campbell 49.4

Girls 4x400m
    
Fort Bend Marshall of Texas led this affair from wire to wire, thanks to a 55.9 leadoff leg. The 4-time defending champions Speed City were 3 seconds behind after the opening leg and could never catch back up to the Texans to match their boys’ crown this year. The only serious challenge came from the Boys and Girls High School from Brooklyn, only half a second behind Fort Bend after two legs, but a slower third leg buried their hopes.
    
Fort Bend won in 3:46.36, US#2 team this winter. Their other three splits were 56.1, 57.7, and 56.7
    
Boys and Girls held onto second with 3:47.57, falling to US#3 but improving their seasonal best by almost 2 seconds.
    
Speed City was third in a rather disappointing 3:49.14

Boys 4x200m
    
Speed City, also known as Long Beach Poly from California, surely lived up to its nickname in this one. They were the odds-on favorites after running a nation-leading 1:27.93 in Saturday’s trials, with the closest competition, DeMatha from Maryland, almost a second and a half slower. However, DeMatha decided to make a run for it, actually leading by 0.7 seconds after the first two legs. But Speed City caught up to them and the anchors of both teams got the baton almost at the same time. After that, DeMatha could not match the California team’s 21.3 anchor leg, and Speed City was again the speediest.
    
The Long Beach team registered a 1:27.42, improving on their national best. Their splits were: 22.2, 22.2, 21.7, 21.3. After only an hour’s rest they would come back to take the 4x400m crown as well, once again edging out DeMatha on the last leg.
    
DeMatha’s US#3 1:28.49 broke down as follows: 22.5, 21.2, 22.5, 22.2.
    
Girls 4x200m
    
Speed City girls matched their boys accomplishment, but in a less impressive 1:39.67. The team of Reid, Joseph, Hawkins, and Thompson edged out Middle College NY, which had the best qualifying time, by only 0.35 seconds. That means the Cali school won 3 of the 4 sprint relays, quite an accomplishment.

Boys 400m
    
Marcus Boyd from Texas got out fast, ahead of favorites Charles Cox from New Jersey and William Wynne from Georgia, and never relinquished the lead. He ran the first lap in 22.4 and was never seriously challenged. His winning time of 47.54 was the US#2 this winter. Cox finished second in 48.26 while Wynne, who was the top seed coming into the meet, was never in contention for the title and finished a disappointing 7th overall.
    
The Baylor-bound Texan said that a quick start and leading wire-to-wire is his trademark style of running. He had only run two other 400s this winter, and they were not nearly as impressive, as he could not even break 49 seconds. However, his outdoor personal best of 47.36, from last year’s Great Southwest meet, is more indicative of his abilities because he prefers racing on the full oval outdoors.
    
Boyd’s outdoor goals include winning his state meet in the 400m as well as possibly getting close to 45 seconds, which might not be impossible given that he ran a 21.18 200m last year.
    
Boyd would then go on to finish third in the 200m less than two hours later.

Girls 400m
    
Californian Turquoise Thompson was the only girl in the nation to break 54 seconds this winter, so she was the favorite, but the New York City fans were clearly behind the US#3 Dalilah Muhammad from Benjamin Cardozo, who anchored the winning sprint medley on Friday. Thompson took it out fast in 25.3 with her teammate Jasmine Joseph on her heels, but Muhammad was sitting in third and moved up to second before the last turn.

The Queens star came off the turn on the last straightaway, passed Thompson down the stretch and, to the delight of the local fans, won her second gold of the weekend in 54.23. Thompson had to be satisfied with silver for the second year in a row, this time in 54.42, but since she is only a sophomore, she will have two more chances to win the national title.

Boys 200m
    
Having already won the 60m dash an hour earlier, Georgian Justin Christian appeared to be heading for his second national championship. But the silver medalist from the shorter race, Trenton Guy from North Carolina, avenged his loss and passed Christian in the last few steps. In the process, Guy’s 21.09 was a huge improvement on his previous nation-leading time from Saturday as well at the #4 performance all-time.
    
It was a great, exciting duel which produced fantastic performances. Christian’s 21.15 was US #2 this winter and US #7 all-time. It was a huge personal best for him as before this weekend he boasted merely a 21.49, run outdoors last spring. He is considering Florida State or Louisville as his choices for further improvement at the NCAA level.

Girls 200m
    
Having won the 60m dash final and coming into her second final of the day as the top seed, Texas senior Tiffany Townsend appeared to be in trouble here after she stumbled out of the blocks and Michigan’s Shayla Mahan got out very fast down the back straightaway. But Townsend’s leg speed carried her flying through the second half of the race as she captured her second national title of the afternoon with a 23.34, improving on her US#2 from Saturday.

As Mahan faded, the freshman sensation Ashton Purvis from California moved up to take the silver and yet again broke the freshman national record with 23.55, eight hundredths better than Saturday. How fast can she fly outdoors?

Boys 60m
    
This promised to be a great battle between Trenton Guy and Justin Christian. The two Southeastern sprinters ran the same time in their semifinals (6.76, although Guy did manage two hundredths faster in a qualifying heat), so they were running next to each other in Lanes 4 and 5. Christian proved to have a faster pair of legs, crossing the finish line in 6.69 to Guy’s 6.77.
His time was the US#2 this winter and a new Armory high school record. Terrell Wilks was third in 6.81, but the highlight of the event was one of the finishers jumping over the big mat at the top of the banked track turn and falling a good 10 feet on the ground next to the shot put cage. Fortunately there were no injuries!
    
Christian and Guy would then return to have another great battle in the 200m (see that story).

Girls 60m
    
After her speedy 7.28 in Saturday’s semifinal, Tiffany Townsend from Texas was the slight favorite in the final over Gabby Mayo and Shayla Mahan, US#2 at both 55m and 60m. She did not disappoint, although Mayo was amazingly close to beating her for the win. The finish line photo showed, however, that Townsend edged Mayo out, 7.32 to 7.33. Mayo had to walk away with the silver for the second year in a row while Townsend would soon complete her sprint double by winning the 200m.
    
Freshman Ashton Purvis from California finished sixth in 7.50, just missing her freshman national record from the day before by one hundredth of a second.

Boys 60m hurdles
    
Brooklyn’s own Kemar Clarke had the support of the loud Armory crowd behind him, and after his overwhelming semifinal victory in US#4 and New York state record 7.84, the fans must have had great expectations for him. It was closer than he would have liked, but the senior did not disappoint them, winning in 7.88, four hundredths of a second faster than Georgia’s William Wynne.
It was also the second gold of the weekend for the South Shore athlete who anchored his shuttle hurdle relay team to Friday’s victory.
    
Girls 60m hurdles
    
Having just lost the dash final by a hair, North Carolina’s Gabby Mayo was looking for redemption in the hurdles 20 minutes later, but US#2 Lindsay Rowe would give her none. The Benjamin Cardozo, Queens, senior had already won one gold on the sprint medley, and on Sunday she claimed another in a spectacular fashion. Her jaw-dropping 8.25 was the second fastest time in US history, a senior class national record, and a new meet record. Californian Vashti Thomas finished not far behind in 8.30, becoming the third fastest high schooler in history.
    
Mayo apparently got injured during the final and only finished fifth, just behind the new triple jump national record holder Ke’Nyia Richardson.

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