| |
5/1/99 at Parker-Gray Stadium, T. C. Williams High School, Alexandria VA
17th T. C. Williams Invitational
This meet will be "webcast" by DyeStat - log on for live results after
each event.
Preview - 6 Penn Relays champions entered
by Pearl Watts
This Saturday's Seventeenth Annual T.C. Williams Invitational, once again
will prevail this season as the largest area meet with 1,400 athletes
representing sixty schools expected to participate. The meet never lacks in
quantity or quality and this year is no exception with the four individuals
and two relay teams from the metropolitan area that were winners last weekend
at the 105th Penn Relays on hand to highlight the competiton.
The star studded cast includes Penn winners Rickey Harris of Centreville,
West Sprngfield's Nick Welihozkiy, Sheena Johnson from Gar-Field, the Potomac
(Va.) 4x100 meter relay team, the 4x400 relay squad from Northwestern (Md.)
and Eleanor Roosevelt's (Md.) Allen Simms.
The meet at T.C. Williams' Parker-Gray Stadium will begin with field event
finals at 9:00 a.m. Running event trials start at 9:30 a.m. in the girls 100
meter hurdles and boys 110 meter high hurdles. That will be followed by
trials in both the boys and girls 100 and 200 meter dashes and there will
also be the non-top seeded sections of the boys and girls 1,600 and 3,200
runs.
Running event finals for both boys and girls are slated to start at 1:00
p.m with the 3,200 meter relay and all subsequent events will be on a rolling
time schedule. Gar-Field is the defending girls team champion and Western
Branch the defending boys champion.
Harris, who was named the outstanding male high school individual event
performer at Penn after his meet record in the 400 hurdles of 50.63 seconds,
is slated to run the 110 high hurdles, 300 intermediate hurdles and the 200
dash. Harris won the 110 highs as a sophomore last year in 14.13 and will be
after the ten year old meet record of 13.97 set by Derrick Henderson of Green
Run.
In the 300 intermediates Harris, who ran 37.38 two weeks ago at the Allen
Johnson Invitational, also has his sights set on that 1995 meet record of
37.32 by Ballou's Rodriques Pfister. In the 200 dash, Harris will have plenty
of competition from Potomac 4x100 relay anchor Rico Lloyd, DeMatha's Blake
Pearson and Northwestern 4x400 relay member Robert Wingate-Robinson with
Andre Cason of Green Run's 1987 record of 21.14 presumably safe for another
year.
Welihozkiy of West Springfield also has meet record capabilities. The
Spartan senior won the Penn Relays discus throw last week on his last attempt
with a 190 feet, 11 inch effort. That marked the third meet this season in
which Welihozkiy has thrown over 190 feet. Welihozkiy will be after the meet
record set in 1985 by W.T.Woodson's Andy Heck of 182-7 and may need to
surpass that mark in order to win the event with the field bolstered by
Marvin Urqhart of Western Branch, the state outdoor runnerup last year in the
discus who also won the state wrestling 275 pound class this year.
Welihozkiy is also the top seed in the shot put at 59-2.5 and will be
looking for the big breakthrough at 60 feet and possibly Rodney Johnson's
meet record of 60-6.75 from 1997.
Sheena Johnson of Gar-Field, named the top indoor girls track and field
performer in the nation this past season by Track and Field News is fresh off
her second successive win at Penn in the 400 hurdles and won the Bev Lawson
female MVP award at the meet last year.
Johnson is the top seed and defending champion in both the 100 hurdles and
300 hurdles with the 300 record of 43.4 by Lake Braddock's Angela Griffith
from 1988 within her grasp. Johnson is also the top seed in the triple jump
at 42-4.75 after leading the nation indoors and is also one of the top seeds
in the long jump and 200 dash.
Potomac, which went 1-2-3 at the state indoor meet in the 55 dash with Mike
Newell, Phil Acosta and Rico Lloyd respectively, added hurdler Jeff Foy to
the mix and came away with the Championship of America 4x100 title at 41.26.
The meet record for Potomac would actually take improvement over last week
with the 1993 standard of 41.14 set by Anthony Holley, Carlos Samuels, Bryan
Drummond and Dwayne Lowery also the last U.S. team to win the 4x100 at Penn
before Potomac (40.56; 1993).
For Potomac in individual events, Newell and Lloyd are the top two seeds in
the long jump, Foy is seeded third in the 110 hurdles and Newell along with
Acosta are two of the favorites in the 100 dash.
Northwestern's 4x400 of Wingate-Robinson, Dwayne Thomas, Ali Najjar and
James Graham posted the third fastest timne ever at Penn with their winning
time of 3:10. Graham was named the top male high school performer in relay
events after splitting 47.0 in the Saturday morning trials and then blasting
a 45.9 in the afternoon finals. Graham will be after one of the oldest
records at T.C. in the 400 dash at 47.0 hand timed by Patrick Mann of
Gar-Field in 1984. Graham is also entered in the 300 hurdles while Najjar is
scheduled for both the 1,600 and 3,200 runs.
Junior Allen Simms of Roosevelt (Md.) took the Penn triple jump after
improving over one foot from his previous best to 49-9.25 and will be looking
to break the 50 foot barrier and get the 1993 record of 49-10.5 by Quince
Orchard's (Md.) O.J. Robinson.
Some of the other top entrants on the boys side in the running events
include the T.C. Williams 4x800 relay team of Aaron Beck, Jon Diamond,
Busayo Ojumu and Brandon Alexander, the number two U.S. team and number three
overall finisher at Penn last week in 7:44.51 who will be looking for the
1991 meet record of 7:48.75 set by T.C. Williams.
Also entered is Antonio Gray of Ballou (D.C.), the top ranked 500 meter
performer indoors who is slated for both the 400 dash against Northwestern's
Graham and the 800 run where Garrick Copes of Hayfield is one of the
favorites.
On the girls side besides Johnson, there are two returning defending
champions in seniors Yolanda Thompson of West Potomac and Centreville's Faith
Rein. Thompson won the long jump last year at 18-6 and is certainly capable
of bettering the meet record of 19-0.75 set in 1987 by Lake Braddock's Dana
Boone. Thompson is also the defending champion and meet record holder in the
triple jump at 40-11.75 and will have yet still another battle with Johnson
in that event.
Rein is the defending champion in the 400 dash at 55.39 with that meet
record one of the toughest on the board; 53.45 by Eleanor Roosevelt's Suziann
Reid in 1995 who currently runs for Texas and was voted the top collegiate
relay performer at Penn last week. Rein's main competitor in the 400 dash
should be Chantilly's Alyssa Aiken, the fourth place finisher in the 400
hurdles at Penn last week (60.88). Rein and Aiken are also the top two seeds
in the 200 dash.
Other top talent on the girls side includes Mount Vernon's Sharon O'Connor,
the runnerup at Penn in the mile run who will have Erin Swain of Lake
Braddock as her chief opponent in the 1,600 run and will go against
Jefferson's Kelley Otstott in the 800 run.
Also, Kim Jones of the Greensboro (N.C.) Pacestters is one of the top seeds
in both the long jump and 100 hurdles; Robinson's Liz Awtrey, the fourth
place finisher in the 3,000 at Penn is the favorite in the 3,200 run and
Eleanor Roosevelt's 400 relay squad led by Jessica Defreitas, finished fourth
in the championship race at Penn in 47.17 and is a threat to get the 1992
record of 47.54 set by the E. Roosevelt squad which included Suziann Reid and
Ebony Robinson.
|