DyeStat Page 1

Columbus Ohio March 13-14, 1999

Nike Indoor Classic

Mano-a-Mano again:
Casey Combest and Mike Newell

Casey Combest sped 6.24 in his prelim heat sat. Feb.6 at Proviso West H.S. in Chicago. In the final Combest had a misstep and ran 6.26.  Both times were FAT.

This makes Combest the USL and tied him with, among others, Andre Cason and Mike Newell (ran that as a frosh!) for #9-AT. He’ll be a definite threat to Houston McTear’s 5.9ht set in ‘76 and the 6.16A mark set by LaNorris Marshall, ‘78. The non-altitude aided mark is also 6.16 by Deworski Odom, ‘95.

This mano a mano challenge, Combest vs Newell, ranks with such great NSSF-arranged matchups as William Reed vs Steve Lewis; John Trautman vs Reuben Reina; and a young Marion Jones vs Zundra Feagin. In the Reed-Lewis matchup, the 400m in ‘87, Reed won the race with an utterly exhausted Lewis gasping to Mike Byrnes, “I tried, I gave it all I had.” The following year Lewis won the gold in Seoul, becoming the youngest Olympic champion ever.

Trautman bested Reina in what most feel was the greatest indoor mile field ever. Reina recently recalled, “I’d decided not to go (to the meet) and had just left my coach’s office where he was telling Mike the bad news. I met my girl friend outside and she told me I was crazy and should go. I went back in and told coach.”

Reina might have won the race but for a bump coming off the final turn.

Zundra Feagin was T&FN’s Athlete of the Year and no one thought this skinny little kid from California had a chance. Jones wasn’t awed by her older and more illustrious adversary. In the final she burst from the blocks and soundly defeated Feagin, beginning her reign as the Sprint Queen of America.