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| 25th National Scholastic Indoor Champs March 14-16, 2008 The New Balance Track and Field Center at The Armory, NY NY
DyeStat on-site |
Finding room in a loaded field
NSIC boys 2-lapper is stacked and deep
Preview by Dave Devine, DyeStat assistant editor
 In a seismic sense, the tsunami that will almost certainly crest as the Boys 400 meter final at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships in New York City began weeks ago, with related but relatively minor tremors in the far-flung locales of Pocatello, Idaho, and Lexington, Kentucky. With eight of the top eleven 400-meter runners in the nation heading for the Armory in the Big Apple this weekend, led by current indoor US#1 William Wynne GA (47.82) and outdoor #1 Christian Taylor GA (47.39), the NSIC two-lapper is shaping up to be an instant classic. Some very good runners will be watching from the stands, while those who make the final will seek to either even scores or confirm outcomes from two previous national-level meets which largely established the event’s landscape this winter.
Start with the Simplot Games, held a month ago on a frigid weekend in Pocatello, Idaho. Ohio senior star Kendall Gregory, ranked US#1 in the 400 at the time, entered the meet as a prohibitive favorite in his specialty. As the event final unfurled, however, Akinto Boone, a fifth-year senior from Newburgh Free Academy (Newburgh NY), took the early lead off the break, passing 200 in 22.4, with Dominick Roberts (left, photo by John Dye) of East High in Denver CO, surging to second. Through the final turn, Boone looked to have the edge, but Gregory had blazed the backstretch and seemed well-positioned for a late charge off the banked curve. Then, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it move that dropped jaws in the stands, Roberts swung into lane two and re-materialized two meters in front of Boone with a blistering kick that secured the gold and left him atop the seasonal list with a 47.98 winner.
“Definitely, I was surprised,” Roberts said at the time. “I was in shock…my eyes were wide. It was amazing.”
Sporting a mohawk and a pair of dangling earrings, Roberts might stand out on the track, but as someone who hails from the sprinter-rich state of Colorado, he hasn’t exactly attracted much national attention until this season.
“I’m a to-myself kind of person,” Roberts says. “I’m more out there with my actions than with my words. I think that just with me getting better, I’ll get more coverage.”
While it certainly provided more coverage, Roberts’ US#1 in the event lasted exactly a week, as another meeting of top quarter-milers, this time in the southeast, provided more fireworks and a new national leader.
William Wynne may be best known as a hurdler, and fellow Georgian Christian Taylor as a horizontal leaper, but on the flat 291-meter oval at the University of Kentucky on February 23rd, they locked up for a long sprint battle that left the dust settled around Wynne as the top-ranked 400 high schooler in the nation (47.82) and Taylor a stride behind (48.01) as the country’s #4 performer.
 Which brings us to New York.
Wynne’s mark was run on an over-sized track in Kentucky. Robert’s effort was contested at altitude in Idaho. In New York they’ll meet on for the first time on an equalizing surface: the lightning-fast, 200-meter banked Armory track at sea level. But it will hardly be a two-man race. Not even remotely. Christian Taylor from that Kentucky race is entered, as is Boone from the Simplot Games, and Simplot 4th-placer Kyle MacIntosh (48.58). Pennsylvania star Khaliff Featherstone, with range to at least 800 meters, comes in as the #7 performer in the country with an indoor best of 48.29 this winter. Fellow East Coasters Dennis Scruggs of New York and Garrett Ellis of New Jersey are close behind at 48.56 and 48.57. Both are entered at NSIC. Add in the top two returners from last spring, Texan Robert Simmons (right, photo by John Sullivan) and Delaware standout Bernard Goodwyn, both sub-46.5 last year, and it’s clear there aren’t enough lanes on the Armory track to contain all the bodies jockeying for position in the final.
The only glaring omission is Gregory, the Strongsville, Ohio senior who sits at #3 on the indoor list. He’ll be competing in his home state’s indoor championships this weekend, racing in Akron and hoping to catch the attention of the nation's track fans from a distance. Although he certainly coveted a shot at the field assembled in New York, after an injury at Nike Indoor Nationals last winter, his high school requested that he compete for the team at the Ohio State Meet this year.
Minus Gregory, however, it’s still a spectacular lineup-- deep, fast and full of motivation. With a national title, national bragging rights and a US#1 very likely on the line, what began in Pocatello and Lexington will almost certainly be settled in significantly less than a New York minute.
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