Senior sets PA mark at Bishop Loughlin Games
By Christopher HuntPeople were still filing in, not completely ready to submit their full attention. And as they settled themselves, Chanelle Price gave people a reason to say to anyone who came later, “Wow, you missed it.” The Olympic hopeful and Easton Area (Pa.) senior crushed the meet record in the 1,000 meters and topped the Pennsylvania state record at the Bishop Loughlin Games today at the Armory.
Price cranked through a solo run in 2 minutes, 47.85 seconds, the sixth-fastest scholastic time in U.S. history on a day when 12 nation-leading marks were set. “I was looking to run 2:45,” she said. “But, 2:47, I’ll take it. I just wanted to go out and hit my splits for each lap.”
She could only criticize the fact that she had run the first lap a little too fast (29.8 seconds) and that she fell asleep on her fourth circuit. But she sounded like a runner just tinkering with race strategy instead of tinkering with the order of names in the record books. Price said wanted to plan her season more carefully this year. “Last year, I just ran hard everywhere,” she said.
This year, even through the indoor season, everything is geared toward the Olympic Trials in June. She looked up with stars in her eyes while she talked about hopes of breaking two minutes for 800 meters and said that she planned running mostly the 1,000 and 600 through the winter season.
“I just want to keep getting better and going for records,” she said. “I’m going to go for everything. It’s my senior year.”
“I just went out the way I normally do,” Clayton said. “I usually go out fast. I just keep thinking that I didn’t want to lose.”
With her tilted right, dropping her right down like a hammer, Clayton inched ahead of the Medgar Evers anchor turning the crowd’s anticipation into raucousness. “We all ran the same distance,” Clayton said. “We all ran other races. I figured we all had tired legs.
“I heard the announcer say the other two schools names in front,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’m going to make him say Suffern.’”
Clayton also finished third in the long jump in 17 feet, 1 ½ inches and sixth in the 300 in 41.65 (40.33 in the trials). Her older sister, Janelle, who ran the third leg, won the high jump in 5-6.
Cardozo senior Dalilah Muhammad, much like Clayton, spent most of her race negotiating through traffic in the 600. Muhammad, who is being courted by USC, South Carolina, Florida State and Texas A & M, couldn’t get out of fifth place until 250 meters left when she popped into the third lane to find an opening. “I didn’t expect them to go out that fast,” she said. “I wasn’t panicking as much as I was getting kind of nervous because I kept trying to get around. Once I found an opening, I just went.” When she broke through no one could catch. Muhammad’s time is the fastest in the nation this season. “I’m happy with the race. Everybody has to learn to run from the back sometimes.”
That was something that Brianna Welch of North Shore had down. She sat in third behind Greenwich’s Caitlin Lane and Sarah McCurdy of Bay Shore in the mile until 300 left. McCurdy had dropped off the pace, leaving Welch on Lane’s right shoulder.
Lane had controlled the pace throughout. But Welch’s plan was to draft off the leaders until she could overpower them with her speed. When she took off, Lane tried to cover the move but couldn’t.
“My plan was not to do anything,” Welch said. “I wasn’t going to go until 300 or 400 to go unless I was feeling great and I wasn’t. I knew the other girls are great runners so I couldn’t wait any longer to go. Once I didn’t feel anybody with me I didn’t think they were coming.”
Nadonnia Rodriques of Boys & Girls won the continued a stellar start to the season, winning the 300 in 38.73 and anchoring her team’s 4x400, which won in 3:54.09. Rodriques is also being recruited by top-flight programs such as South Carolina, Texas Christian and LSU. She took over the race at 70 meters and was never challenged.
“I feel confident,” Rodriques said. “I just want to keep improving as the season goes along, 37 or better.”
photos by www.wingedfootfotos.com