Ato Modibo (4 golds, 2 records) Is Star of the Meet;
Kathy Messner 5-9 HJ is 1A Record, 3rd best all time;
New 100 Hurdles Record 14.12 for Nyjla Littlejohn;
Brother-Sister Gold for Dye-namites

WESTMINSTER, MD - 5/24/97 -- Ato Modibo claimed four gold medals to become the undisputed star of the 50th Maryland State High School Track and Field Championships Saturday. The High Point junior transplant from Trinidad ran a state championship record 46.24 in the 400 meters and then had a 46 second anchor to give his team a record 3:15.08 in the 1600 meter relay. Modibo, the National Scholastic Indoor 400-meter champion in Boston in March, also won the Class 4A (largest class) 100 meters (10.67) and 200 meters (21.68).

Kathy Messner, Catoctin junior, high jumped 5-9 for a new Class 1A (smallest of the four classes) record and a tie for third best on the all-time state championship list. Only Tanya Hughes (5-10 and 6-0 in 1988 and 1989) has jumped higher in Maryland. Messner also won the 1A long jump (17-8) and triple jump (37-0) without hitting her best marks of the year and was fourth (12.64) in the 100 meters.

Wilde Lake senior hurdle star Nyjla Littlejohn ran the 100 meter hurdles in 14.12 for a new State record. She missed a chance to double in the 300 hurdles when she was disqualified for a false start.

Middletown sophomore Natalie Dye won the inaugural girls pole vault (9-0) in class 2A to complete a rare brother-sister gold (Derek Dye, a junior, cleared 6-8 Friday for the best high jump of the meet and a tie for fifth best on the all-time list). Long time observers of the state meet could recall only two previous brother-sister gold medal acts, both from Middletown. Frank and Nadja DeSantis each won the mile run in 1985. Monte and Donna Boyer (son and daughter of Derek Dye's Middletown jumps coach, Don Boyer) were each on winning relay teams in 1986. But setting state records in the process may be unprecedented. Derek's high jump tied the Class 2A record, and Natalie's pole vault becomes the first Class 2A record.

Frederick senior Valerie Williams, who set a state championship record 42-8.5 in the triple jump Thursday, was off her form today and settled for second in the long jump (19-0) to Ola Sesay of 4A girls champion Eleanor Roosevelt (19-3), with both well below Williams' state record 19-10.5 of a year ago. Sesay also won the 300 hurdles in 43.77. Both Williams and Sesay are headed for the University of Kentucky next year.

See State Meet page for more news of the championships. -->

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