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by Ed Grant
Netters:
Some afterthouights on the Nationals from a New Jersey perspective:
We are going to have quite a battle for the girls' CC title in
NJ
next fall., The 1-2 finishers are back, Lindsay Van Alstine of Hawthorne
Christian and Jesse Mizzone of Passaic Valley, who won the 5K at
the
Nationals. We have been told that the Trotter twins will be running
for the
first time. And then there are the incoming frosh, including Jen
Croghan,
who was 4th in ther National 2M in 10:48.48. The only problem there
is that,
if she attends the school she now seems to be heading for, it is
one that is
not presently a member of our state association so she would be
able to run
against the others only in open competitions., But it should give
NJ quite a
team at the Foot Locker Regionals.
There were a lot of very impressive perforances at the New York
meet, but
nothing to match Sanya Richards of Florida. Now if she will just
follow a
couple of other athletes of recent note and change her athletic
nationality
to U.S. [Editor's Note: Sanya has applied for US citizenship.]
She simply flew around the track in her two races. Too bad Angel
Perkins wasn't fit enough to give her some competition.
The mile win by Julia Lucas wasn't that much of a shock to those
who
had noticed her in Friday's DMR. I was standing right at the spot
where she
blazed by Kathleen Trotter halfway through the anchor leg. She went
by so
fast that Katie wasn't able to latch onto her as a sort of
pseudo-leader (Julia's team had been lapped earlier),
taking the pressure to set her own pace. (By the way, the twin switch
by Red
Bank was a brilliant, if unexpected move; it may have been triggered
by the
way Katie ran the 1600 in our AG meet; it came only 30-35 minutes
after she
had won a tough 800M race and, while she didn;t win, she finished
in front
of sister Amanda, who had a couple of hours to rest from her 3200
win that
day).
It was very nice to get a look at our fastest female 800 runner
this
winter, freshman Kimara McDonald, a Willingboro resident who attends
Merion-Mercy Academy outside Philadelphia. She won the 2nd section
of the
800 in 2:14.07. As my friend Reuben Frank says, what a SMR Willingboro
would
have with her on the team. Simone Thomas, who does attend Willingboro,
but
did not run with the team this winter, ran 58.71 in her 400 heat;
she is a
junior like the four girls who do run for the 'Boro and would make
a
valuable addition if she chooses to return to the team this spring.
What has happened to the boys' HJ this winter? Only three boys
of a
five-man field made the opening height in NY; things weren't much
better in
Landover where the winning height was 6-8 3/4, Mike Morrison of
Willingboro
having a rare off day after clearing 7-0 or better in five earlier
meets.
Hope there's a lot of talent coming off the basketball court; Willingboro
has a soph who cleared 6-8 as a frosh last spring.
Glenn DiGiorgio's PR at Landover came on his final throw, a regular
thing with his family. Old brother Kevin (now retired due to back
problems)
won two of his three National titles on his final effort.
Nurani Sheikh, who won the 2M in NY and was 3nd in a fast 5K,
looks
to me like a perfect college CC prospect. He just runs and runs,
very much
like Brian Dalpiaz of Sayville. Their winning 2M times in the Easterns
and Nationals were also very close.
I have been picking all-star teams in various sports for close
to
60 years and have seldom come up with a puzzle like I face this
winter in
the boys' HH in NJ. As Tom Heath of CBA said to me yesterday when
I
mentioned this problem, "I guess it just depends on what day
it is" when
deciding who is our best. A new leader popped up in the 60MHH race
in NY,
junior Jeff Porter of Franklin. (Of course, we all know who is the
best
hurdler in our state, but he thinks he is Michael Jordan and sat
the bench
for his school's basketball team this winter)
Good line from Don Bosco Prep coach John Nepolitan after the 3200R
in NY: "Well, at least we won the national Salesian title,
finishing in
front of Don Bosco Tech from California."
Too bad those twins didn't finish in an exact tie in the Landover
pentathlon; that certainly would have been one for the Guinness
Book of
Records. I had been hoping Shameka Speed of Bridgeton would try
the event at
one or the other meet, but she took the weekend off. Her credentials
are
first class in the hurdles, LJ and HJ; she hasn't run the 800 but
her 400
races (she was 3rd in our AG meet) give me the idea she could easily
break
2:20. That would leave only the SP for her to "fake."
and she'd be way over
3,000 points without it. She's the equal or superior of ECAC champ
Bridgette
Ingram of Seton Hall in the four events and Bridgette doesn't do
that well
either in the SP.
Ed Grant
DyeStat US
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