|
by Pete Cava
REPEAT WINNERS, MEET RECORDS
AND NATIONAL LEADERS GALORE AT NIKE INDOOR CLASSIC
LANDOVER, Md., March 10, 2002 --- Sheena Gordon of Erie, Pa., became
a
double winner at the Nike Indoor Classic for the second consecutive
year. The McDowell High School senior, who won the triple jump on
opening day at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex,
came back Sunday to win the high jump with a clearance of 6-feet.
Gordon also won triple jump and high jump titles at the 2001 meet.
She entered four events for a second straight year, but this time
the workload appeared to take a toll on the UCLA recruit.
Third in the 60 meter hurdles a year ago, Gordon failed to reach
Sunday’s final.
“Hopefully, I’ll have enough left in me to get on the
medal stand for the long jump,” she said after her third event.
But it wasn’t to be. Gordon long jumped 18-1.5 and came in
12th, well below last year’s fifth-place finish. She said she
knew she could take nothing for granted at this year’s meet.
“I came here figuring the fields would be pretty tough,”
she said. “I knew I’d have to do my best today.”
Although she missed her personal best in the high jump by a half-inch,
Gordon’s
6-0 clearance was the year’s best indoor prep mark and a meet
record.
Six other individuals joined Gordon as repeat winners Sunday.
Samantha Shepard of Weston, Mass., High School cleared a
meet record height of 13-1.5 to win the girls pole vault for a second
consecutive year. Shepard had three unsuccessful tries at a national
high school record height of 13-5.25. “My last attempt felt
the best,” said the soft-spoken Shepard, “but I didn’t
quite finish the top on any of them.” The native New Yorker
will attend Stanford this fall and says she’s ready for the
move to the West Coast. “I’ll miss my coach in Boston,”
she said, “but change is good.”
The boys mile title went to Bobby Curtis of Louisville’s
Xavier High for the
second consecutive year. As a sophomore at the 2001 meet, Curtis
zipped into the lead on the final turn for an upset victory. This
time, he stormed into first place with less than 20 meters remaining
to shade Alex Tatu of Chester, Pa. Curtis’s winning time was
4:16.14, with Tatu second in 4:16.31.
“It was almost exactly like last year,” said Curtis. “I
stayed in position until the
last 200, then turned it on. If I’m in contention with 200
meters to go, the adrenaline
takes over.”
One big difference this year is Curtis’s bulkier physique,
the result of off-season
weight training. “I’m still a skinny white kid,”
he said, “but I’m a little stronger.”
Kelly Willie of Houston’s Sterling High School was
a repeat winner in the boys.
400 meters. Willie’s time of 47.49 was a meet record, edging
Ashton Collins of New
Orleans (47.86) and Jeremy Wariner of Grand Prairie, Texas (47.89).
Megan Kaltenbach of Smoky Hill High School in Aurora, Colo.,
won her second
consecutive girls 2-mile crown. Running her own pace, Kaltenbach
took over the lead on the seventh lap and won by more than 14 seconds
in 10:37.86.
Keith Moffatt of Newport News, Va., repeated in the high
jump. Moffatt and
Michael Morrison of Willingboro, N.J., both cleared 6-8.75, with
Moffatt getting the nod on fewer misses.
Ashlee Williams won the girls 60 meter hurdles title for
the second straight time.
Williams, from Bishop Dunne High School in Dallas, finished in 8.39
--- the year’s fastest time, and a shade off the national high
school (8.33) and meet (8.36) records.
Thwarted again was Julie Pickler of Rowlett, Texas, High.
After finishing second by a point to her twin sister Diana in Saturday’s
pentathlon, Julie finished behind Tianna Madison of Elyria,
Ohio, in the long jump on Sunday. Madison’s mark of 20-2.5
was the year’s best prep mark, while Julie’s best attempt
was 19-4. Diana Pickler’s 18-6 gave her seventh place.
There were meet record aplenty, and a a slew of national-leading
prep performances.
Steve Craig’s anchor leg gave North Penn High of Lansdale,
Pa., a permanent lead in the boys 4x800 meter relay. The Pennsylvania
squad, with a lineup of Rich Bennett, Adam Thomas, Dan Michael and
Craig, dipped under the meet record in 7:54.96.
The girls 800 meter championship record fell to Mindy Sullivan
of Lubbock,
Texas. Sullivan’s time of 2:10.42 was the year’s fastest
on a flat track, besting Jennifer Perry of Framingham, Mass (2:10.93)
and freshman Katya Kostetskaya of Jonesboro, Ark. (2:13.24), an
exchange student from St. Petersburg, Russia.
University of Notre Dame recruit Molly Huddle won the girls
mile in a meet
record time of 4:46.42, another season-leading performance. Huddle,
from Notre Dame Academy in Elmira, N.Y., ran against the clock.
Runnerup Nikki Bohnsack, a freshman who anchored a pair of first-place
relay teams Saturday for Rockford. Mich., High, was second in 4:57.10.
Bobby Lockhart of Handley High School in Winchester, Va.,
won the boys 2-mile
in 8:58.04, the year’s fastest prep time. Lockhart, ambushed
last year in the mile by
Bobby Curtis, took no chances and led from the fifth lap on. He
finished well ahead of Chris Solinsky of Stevens Point, Wisc., who
outkicked Brian Dalpiaz of Sayville, N.Y., for second place in 9:01.96.
Dialpaz finished third in 9:02.80. Sunday’s race was a tune-up
for Lockhart, who’ll represent the U.S. at the March 23-24
World Junior Cross Country Championships in Dublin, Ireland.
The boys shot put crown went to Glenn DiGiorgio of Bayonne,
N.J. DiGiorgio,
the National Scholastic champ last outdoor season, produced a 66-6
toss on his final
attempt to take over as the national prep leader.
In the girls 200 meters, Philadelphian Juanita Broaddus
bested Juanita Salaam of
Wilmington, Del. Broaddus’s time of 24.51 knocked Salaam out
of the top spot on the current prep list. Coming into the meet,
Salaam’s 24.72 was the fastest flat-track prep performance.
Later in the day, Broaddus took over the lead with 150 meters left
to give William
Penn High its second consecutive triumph in the 4x400 relay. Kandis
Worthington,
Christina Smith, Tyeshia Thomas teamed with Broaddus for a time
of 3:48.59. Second was Eleanor Roosevelt High of Greenbelt, Md.,
in 3:50.67.
The girls 60 meters produced one of day’s closest races and
the No. 10 all-time
prep performance. Zenobia Reed of Houston edged Jakki Bailey
of Kennett Square, Pa., 7.42 to 7.44. Both times were personal bests.
Kenneth Ferguson of Detroit’s Mumford High School topped
a loaded field in the
boys 60 meter hurdles. Ferguson whose best of 7.75 tops the national
prep charts, ran 7.80 Saturday to defeat Michael Loyd of
Winston-Salem, N.C., and Dexter Faulk of Stone Mountain, Ga. Loyd
finished a whisker behind Ferguson in 7.83 with Faulk third in 8.01.
Loyd salvaged his pride less than 10 minutes later with a win in
the 200 meters.
Loyd’s time of 21.68 was a meet record and the year’s
fastest on a flat track.
Another flat-track year’s best came in the boys 800, where
Richard Smith of
Reston, Va., pulled ahead of Paul Cross of Pembroke Pines, Fla..
with less than 20 meters to spare. Smith’s time was 1:53.97
to 1:54.38 for Cross. Third in 1:54.44 was Wil Fitts of DeSoto,
Texas, the runnerup at last year’s USA Junior Championships.
Anchor Barry Jones gave Glen Mills High of Concordville,
Pa., a permanent lead
in the boys 4x400 meter relay. With Eric Alexander, Reggie Bishop
and Mavis Polk on the first three legs, the Pennsylvanians ran a
3:19.51, the year’s best unbanked track time.
Tiondra Ponteen led a Maryland sweep in the girls 400. Ponteen,
from Bowie,
won in 55.54. Behind her were Eleanor Roosevelt High teammates Romona
Modeste of Lanham in 56.15 and Greenbelt’s Renee Clarke in
57.02. Modeste, Ponteen and Clarke teamed up with Kaprice Williams
on the leadoff leg to give Eleanor Roosevelt the 4x200 title in
1:41.00.
The boys team from Oxon Hill, Md., High prevented an Eleanor
Roosevelt sweep in
the 4x200. The Oxon Hill squad bested the Greenbelt school in a
start-to-finish dogfight, 1:29.71 to 1:30.11. Oxon Hill’s time
missed the meet record by 32-hundredths of a second.
The boys 60 meter title went to Darryl Anglin of Dearborn,
Mich., in 6.81. Anglin
led a blanket finish that included Shaton Palmer of Raleigh, N.C.
(6.86), Michael Johnson of Newport News, Va. (6.87) and Joshua Gattis
of Durham, N.C. (6.88).
Lindsey Neuberger of Virginia Beach, Va., runnerup in the
girls shot put in 2001,
won this year’s title with a second-round heave of 48-4.
Kevin Marion, a junior from St. Petersburg, Fla., won the
boys long jump with a
mark of 23-10.75.
Bromfield, Mass., High School won the girls 4x800 meter
relay with a time of
9:14.37.
Chantele Dron convincingly won the first-ever girls freshman
mile. The Candia,
N.H., resident cruised home in 5:00.22, more than nine seconds ahead
of Sarah Bowman of Warrenton, Va.. The boys freshman mile winner
was Jeff See of Middletown, Ohio, in 4:22.62.
Nike Indoor Classic 2002
|
