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| OPEN DIVISION -- UMS-Wright Preparatory School -- Friday, April 4, 2008 @ 3PM
INVITATIONAL DIVISION -- St. Paul's Episcopal School -- Saturday, April 5, 2008@ 1PM
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Mobile Field Events - Biggest marks for Campbell, Smith
Summaries by SteveU and Arthur Mack, Photos by John Nepolitan
 | High jump runner-up Anthony May cleared a fine 6-10
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High Jumps by SteveU
Maybe more than any other event, the boys high jump lived up to its billing. It matched a pair of Alabama 6-10 jumpers in Cordova sr Tyler Campbell and Hoover jr Anthony May. Each had in their recent past plenty of flirtations with seven feet, as most 6-10 jumpers have. Saturday was the day one of them would realize his dream.
Both quickly left the rest of the field behind (6’2” was 3rd) and mowed through 6-6 and 6-8. At 6-10 each cleared again and the crowd at E.E. Delany had a real show on their hands. May couldn’t negotiate the barrier on this day, but Campbell sailed over to nail down the victory and tie Donte Nall’s meet record from two years ago.
The bar rose to 7-2. Campbell couldn’t make it, but he had already achieved the performance that would earn him DyeStat Athlete of the Meet. He can now look to 7-1, 7-2 and beyond.
“It feels good to clear seven feet and good to tie the record,” said Campbell. He had attempted seven feet “3 or 4 times” in meets previously. The difference? “Well, I was just feeling good and feeling rested. Usually, I play basketball before the meets. Before this year, I would only jump at meets.” Now, the Alabama signee has put aside the hoops and wants “to be ranked in the nation.”
The girls high jump, on the other hand, was a bit of a struggle for the top seeds. Three had PRs of 5-8 to 5-10, but only one could even reach 5-6. That was favorite Danielle Williams of Pensacola FL. After clearing that, she went straight up to 5-9. She missed three times, but had the victory in hand.
Javelins by Arthur Mack
 |  | Jav champs Kyle Smith and Bekah Hoppis
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By rights, Daphne, Ala.’s Kyle Smith should have been on top of the world. After all, he came into the Mobile Challenge of Champions ranked second in the nation in the boys’ javelin with a throw of 205-4, which was done at St. Paul’s E.E. Delaney Stadium. So it should have been a no-brainer that he was the overwhelming favorite coming into the invitational boys’ javelin competition.
Sure enough, the script played true to form—Smith won going away with the best throw of the competition—193-5—in conditions that would have driven the average prep thrower crazy. A slippery grass runway, already made slick by the rain and chewed up some by the girls’ competition that took place earlier in the day—made it almost impossible for some of the athletes to keep their footing. Surprisingly, though, six athletes threw 170 feet or better.
Although Smith won handily, throwing more that 18 feet further than runner up Aaron Moore of Foutainebleau (175-3), he was hoping to break the record of 200-5 ½ set by St. Paul’s-Covington’s Preston Chatham in 2005.
“Some days you have it, and some days, you don’t, said Smith. “My release felt good, but I didn’t really have that pop like I usually have, and I kind of slowed down on my approach. But winning this meet is big to me.”
Brother Martin’s Ryan Roubion was third with a throw of 171-11.
The meet record did fall in the girls javelin, however – and for the second straight year. In 2007, it was Ashley Aldridge firing the spear 132-11. This time, American Christian AL’s Bekah Hoppis reached 134-09 to defeat Mandeville, LA’s Jenna Baker by just over eight feet.
Hoppis also smashed her PR, which previously stood at 127-02. She is the Class 1A record holder and ranks 2nd overall in Alabama this year.
Pole Vaults by Arthur Mack
 | Girls vault winner Neal Tisher
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All the elements were there for Mobile St. Paul’s Episcopal’s Neal Tisher—a home track, a friendly crowd, a solid field that included Merritt Van Meter of Metarie, La. Country Day and Hoover’s Laura Bedsole, and an chance to break the existing meet record of 12 feet, 6 inches set by Lacy Janson of Sarasota Fla.’s Cardinal Mooney in 2001.
Tisher’s first vaults were pretty good—in fact, she cleared 11-6 with ease. At 12-0, though, she brushed the bar, but it stayed on.
VanMeter, though, had no such luck. She missed on all three attempts at 12-0, leaving Tisher as the lone vaulter. After clearing 12-0, Tisher decided to go for broke and had the bar placed at 12-7—which would have been a new meet record and an inch higher than her personal best. But she missed on all three attempts.
“I had trouble up top (trying to clear the bar), so I’m going to ha e to do some more bar work,” she said. “This morning, before the competition started, the water (near the pole vault area) was up to our shins, but I’m glad the weather cleared up for us.”
The boys pole vault followed and a field of 14- and 15-footers did battle. Vestavia Hills AL’s Will Henley came in with the best PR at 15-06, but could only reach 14-06 on this day, good for 2nd. Instead, it was St. Louis, LA’s Thomas Reinecke, Louisiana’s indoor champ, who lifted his PR by six inches for the meet’s only 15-foot clearance. He had the bar raised to 15-6, but that mark will remain his new goal for another meet.
Long Jumps/Triple Jumps by Arthur Mack
It was a very unusual sight—back hoes bringing fresh sand to the jumping pits.
But that’s exactly what was needed before the start of the long and triple jump competitions—thanks to the heavy rains that came to the Mobile area the night before and the morning of the meet. Before competition, the sand in the pits was dug up and placed in a huge pile so it could dry out. Once that was done, it was placed back in the pit, along with fresh sand.
 |  |  | Among the jump winners were Brittany Porter, Julio Jones, and Udeh Uzunma
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The ground crew certainly did its best to make conditions more tolerable for the jumpers. In the long jump, Towers (Ga.) standout Brittany Porter managed to overcome a slow, damp runway, going 18 -3 ½ into a slight headwind to defeat Janessa Doucett of Iowa (La.), who managed 17-9. Newnan’s Canesha Edwards was third in 17-5 ½.
At the same time, the field in the invitational boys’ triple jump was having its problems. Because an area that would have been used for an approach run was still soggy and damp, competitors had to adjust, and it affected the distances tremendously. In fact, the winning jump was only a modest 47-0 by Brainerd’s Orlandus Harris—and he managed to do that on his last jump. Hoover, Alabama’s Brian Jackson was second in 45-2, while Mobile’s McGill-Toolen Catholic’s Stephan McCord was third in 44-9.
An hour later, in the boys’ long jump, Foley’s Julio Jones, the defending meet champion, was having problems with his approach, as he trailed Cahokia’s Laderick Ward for most of the competition. But Jones managed to dig deep and on his last attempt, pulled out a 22-9 ½ to win, with Ward having to settle for second with 22-4 ½. Mundy’s Mill’s Tyler Mickens, who won the open division the day before with an impressive 23-7, managed only 21-4 ½ to take third.
Jones said later that soggy sections near the end of the runway forced him to change his approach.
“I didn’t have enough runway and I couldn’t get enough speed,” he said. “I had to push through it (on the last jump) to get the win.”
In the girls’ triple jump, Fountainebleau’s Udeh Uzunma took the lead on her third jump and never looked back, as she used a 2-mph tailwind to win with a 37-10 effort. Scottsboro, Ala.’s Shayna McCarver was second (36-1), while Regis Stimpson of Pensacola’s Booker T. Washington was third with 35-4.
 | Girls shot winner Johnnie Borries
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Shots/Discus by SteveU
Mark Barron is a football player first at St. Paul's, so if you asked him who some of the top NFL or NCAA players are, at his position, he could probably answer you pretty quick. But as far as Reese Hoffa?
“I just found out who he was,” he said.
The IAAF World Champion was a surprise award presenter for the shot put and Barron, with a throw of 56-10 that was two feet ahead of anyone else, was the champion.
It was too bad Hoffa and Barron didn’t have a chance to work on technique. He hit his top mark on his 3rd throw, then couldn’t top it. “I wasn’t bringing it high enough,” he said. “Even on the 56-10, I didn’t bring it high enough. But it was enough for a PR and victory. Nate Neismith (Vestavia Hills AL) was 2nd at 54-09 and London Davis (Cahokia IL) 3rd at 54-05.
Johnnie Borries, another one of St. Paul’s fine athletes, was also trying to PR in the girls shot. She’s been trying to hit 39 feet for awhile, but today it was 38-05. Still enough to win by 21 inches.
But that was just part of Borries’ day. She was also 6th in the jav, 4th in the 100 hurdles, and part of her school’s 4th-place 4x100 team. You guessed it, she’s a multi-eventer. Borries was 6th in the Nike Indoor Pentathlon and is looking at Georgetown, Georgia and Auburn to continue her track career with eyes on the heptathlon.
Tiffany Lofton (H.L. Bourgeois LA) was 2nd with 36-08 and Lili Barbosa (Oxford AL) 3rd with 36-05.
The boys discus saw Pensacola, FL’s Jarred Thomas victorious by more than 12 feet, hitting a winning mark of 174-08. Navarre’s Gabriel Torres (162-03) and St. Thomas Aquinas’ Trey DiChristina (155-05) were 2nd and 3rd.
On the girls side, the victory went to Pine Forest FL’s Noelle Jones with a mark of 113-03. Javelin winner Bekah Hoppis of American Christian AL was 2nd at 111-00 and Niceville’s Kaitlin Davis 3rd at 107-07.
IAAF World Champ putter Reese Hoffa with 3rd, 1st and 2nd placers (from left) Nate Neismith, Mark Barron, and London Davis.
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