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by Ed Grant
Incredible as it may seem. there was more girls' DMR deja vu at
the
NY Armory today, not to mention a new national record of 11:49.34
by Red
Bank (NJ)
The players were slightly different this time around. Boys and
Girls, which had set the short-lived national mark of 11:50.86 beating
Red
Bank in the Easterns on Feb. 26, chose to run the SMR this time
(and, for
its pains, got beaten by NYC rival A. P. Randolph, which ran within
1.2
seconds of the national mark at 3:54.31. More on this below).
In B&G's place, however, was the Bronxville team which had
runners
go 1-3-5 in the Easterns, led by senior Michelle Rorke. And it was
another
war with Red Bank, the Jersey team this time assuming B&G's
usual role or
race leader,
To make the race even more interesting, both teams feature junior
twin combos, Kathleen and Amanda Trotter for RB and Caroline and
Catha
Mullen for Bronxville. (And both communities are, by the way, well-heeled.)
Red Bank made a lineup switch which proved to be the key to victory,
the Trotter twins trading places with Amanda leading off and Kathleen
anchoring.
Amanda opened a big lead with her 3:36+ carry, four seconds faster
than her twin had run against B&G two weeks ago. Bronxville
whittled some of
this down on the next two legs, but Rorke had still a 30-35 yard
gap to
close when she got the stick.
Close it she did and actually nosed ahead off the final turn,
but
Kathleen Trotter responded quickly to win by two yards. (By the
way, the
Armory site will show that all four RB runners are juniors; not
so, 800
runner Katie Kingsbery and 400 runner Christine Hurley are both
seniors)
Rorke, by the way, ran 4:49.6, Trotter 4:55.9.
The two teams are both finished their private war, however. Both
are
listed to run tomorrow (Saturday) in the 6400R. With the top three
runners
for each being pretty evenly matched, it may be how the 4th runners
rate
that decides the issue.
In the SMR, APR got the lead with its superior sprinters and Stacey
Ann Livingston had her work cut out when she got ther stick for
B&G on the
anchor. She caught and passed Sejana Sappleton of APR, but the soph
roared
back off the final turn and won by some 20 yards in 3:54.31.
Though the girls' DMR took center stage, the boys' race was a story
all by itself. Or, more properly, two stories.
To begin with the pre-race seedings were shifted around so that
favored Haddonfield was moved to the second section with the "Bauman's
Track
Club" of Michigan, actually Grandblanc HS. But, before they
could take the
track, unheralded St. Benedict's Prep of Newark (oe of the oldest
track
powers in the nation, its exploits dating at least to 1920) gave
them a mark
to shoot at with a 10:19.36, anchored in 4:16.64 by Noah Waters.
Fortunately, the seeded section had a "rabbit" in the
person of
Cardinal O'Hara (Pa) leadoff man Joe Francisco who ran about 3:05.
It was
not until the 800 leg that the rest of the field caught up with
the Michigan
team taking over.
On the anchor leg, it soon became a race between Lesley Harris
of
Grandblanc and Chris Platt of Haddonfield, Harris powered ahead
with Platt
seemingly struggling to keep up with his head-bobbing style. A couple
of
experienced observers thought (and said) it was all over, but on
the final
lap, Pratt put on a drive to get head-to-head with Harris and, on
the
homestretch, kicked away to win by four yards. The time of 10:16.60
was
almost identical with that run by Haddonfield 11 days earlier at
the
Easterns. Platt was clocked in 4:15.6. The Haddons took off right
after
getting their awards to run the 4MR at the Nike meet in Landover.
Transit Tech of NYC, the national leader in the boys' SMR, won
that
event in 3:29.88, but was almost beaten in the next section when
Cherokee
ran 3:30.01 off a 1:54.5 anchor by Marc Pelerin. The difference
for the
winners, and it was a huge one, was the opening 200M legs.
Scott Fuqua of Birmingham, Ala., had a gine win in the boys; 5K
at
14:39.74, with Nurani Sheikh of Salt Lake City not far back in 14:44.42.
The
winner was 10 seconds off the 1984 national record of 14:29.28 set
by Brad
Hudson of South Eugene HS, the Jersey-bred and nurtured runner who,
for
personal reasons, took his senior year at the Oregon school and
became one
of the few HS athletes to win state CC titles in different "venues."
The girls' 5K was less spectacular, but a rewarding win for Jesse
Mizzone of Passaic Valley (NJ), who won handily in 18;12.42. Mizzone
had
battled illness earlier in the winter, but must be back in form
as she tuned
up for this race by competing in a 20K road race five days earlier.
Field event action was highlighted by a 24-10 LJ (and that was just
in the trials) by the uniquely-named I-Perfection Harris of Poly
Prep (NY)
and a 5-10 HJ by Chaunte Howard of Riverside, Cal. The boys' HJ,
on the
other hand, saw only three boys clear the opening height of 6-6
with Joseph
Marshall of West Columbia, SC, winning at 6-8.
The girls; SP had PRs galore with Kelli Burton of Kayewville, utah,
winning at 48-3 1/2.
Ed Grant.
DyeStat US
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