Run For the Dream - January 16               UNM Indoor - February 18             

Fresno Girls Sprint Group can Challenge as Tops in State History!!

Collins-Davis-Carter head 55m crew!!

Janaury 16th, 2006

   
photos by Doug Speck - Craig Potter - Donna Dye
2006 stars - Ebony Collins - Kristina Davis - Khrystal Carter

 
photos by Kirby Lee
2002 prep returnees
Shalonda Solomon - Angel Perkins (Jasmine Lee) - Allyson Felix (right)

The 55 meter dash group in Fresno this Monday in a meet called fittingly, “Run for the Dream,” will feature a trio of female dashers that are equal to any returning group in State history. A wind-legal 11.60 is truly a prep elite time for the 100 meter dash, where in a dynamite year they may be ten athletes in the entire nation during the spring and summer campaign from all grades under that time.

A viewing of the entire California prep history on the female side comes up with only one other year where three athletes came back under that magical barrier wind-legal of 11.60 like we will have in 2006, with that current trio all at the starting line in the Run for the Dream Monday January 16th Fresno Indoor meet!  With a strong supporting cast, the dashing in Fresno over the 55m distance could be the best in State History!!

Let’s go back in history five years ago, where the State was blessed with a dynamite crew of female dashers that included eventual 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist and 2005 World Champion Allyson Felix (LA Baptist, North Hills), Angel Perkins (Gahr, Cerritos), and Shalonda Solomon (Poly, Long Beach). Perkins, now an All-American at Baylor University after a stint at the University of Arizona, was the nation’s top 100m returnee for the 2002 prep season nationally off her 11.45 2001 best, with 23.07 and 52.18 sprint bests up through the 400 her junior 2001 season. Allyson Felix was 11.53 that sophomore 2001 year, with a 23.19 200 clocking. Shalonda Solomon, part of a magical LB Poly frosh group that 2001 season, was 11.57 (11.37w) and 23.65 during her ninth grade campaign, and she has moved to All-American status at the University of South Carolina. Even in the best days of Marion Jones or which ever top group graced the Golden State in its super history of prep female sprinting, no other group, other than the current 2006 class, has had three such excellent sprinters who returned at under the 11.60 barrier.

Ebony Collins (LB Wilson), the runner-up in the World Youth Championships at 11.44 for the short dash, with a 23.42 best for the 200 and amazing range up through her National Soph class 300 and 400m hurdle records of 40.10 and 55.96, is joined by supers Kristina Davis (Logan, Union City) 11.56 and Khrystal Carter (Valley Christian, San Jose) 11.57.  This trio, all entered in Fresno Monday over the 55m distance, is the only other trio in California prep history to return for prep winter and spring seasons with bests of under the impressive 11.60 barrier. Collins was the State 100m champ last June, with Davis the victim of a false start we have yet to figure out despite numerous high quality views of same from the 2005 State Finals. Davis stormed back to a fourth place later last June in the US Junior Nationals over 100m, with a Gold Medal in the 400m relay from the Junior Pan American Championships. Davis was the NCS 100 and 200 champ, with a 23.80 best in the longer dash. Khrystal Carter was third in the State Final 100m dash, and emerged the 200m champion in Sacramento last June with a best of 23.61 in the longer event! With “back-up” like 23.38 and 52.35 long sprinter Sa-de Williams (Rancho Cucamonga - 11.64w 100 best) and others like Jeneba Tarmoh (11.61w-11.81 wind legal) the Fresno gathering can rate as the best ever get-together of Golden State sprinters.

The Fresno competition over 55 meters features a “back-east” style qualifying format, with heats leading to a semi-finals, then finals, with the scene an interesting same day “build” that many California prep affairs do not have. This is a great part of competitions in many other parts of the nation, especially indoors, and adds an element of excitement as the top athletes sort out action on the track, with one rubbing their hands together in anticipation as a super group rolls through qualifying and into the finals. It should be fun how our stars and others do as they battle to the finals in the short dash! 

With such a fabled history for producing the nation’s top short dashers, from those like Marion Jones, Anglea Williams, Angela Burnham, and a ton of others, it is interesting to note that the 2006 group of short sprinters statewide can challenge as absolutely the best ever as they return for the spring season.

Enjoy the action in Fresno, and keep in mind the short female dashers are equal to any group ever gathered in the Golden State! It should be super!!