Dominque Booker goes 24.21 in 200
By Christopher Hunt
photos by www.wingedfootfotos.com
Immaculate Conception’s Dominque Booker loves the 200 meters. The sophomore is captivated by the rush she gets when she powers around the first curve. She’s infatuated with streaking down the back straightaway, knowing that she’s ahead as she shatters the staggered start. Her heart starts pounding as she enters the second curve, knowing the homestretch is near. Then there’s the adrenaline of the dash toward the finish line.
All those things happened Tuesday in the fastest 200 meters that Booker ever ran. She won the race in 24.21 seconds at the Eastern States championships, the third-fastest time the country this season. It looked like she won the race in the first 60 meters but she needed to hold off a charging Zoey Russell of Fredrick Douglass in the closing meters.
“I can’t take my competition lightly,” Booker said. “I knew there were a lot of fast girls in the race and they were coming after me.”
Booker came screeching off the turn in the lead but Russell wouldn’t lay off and Booker’s arms started to fatigue. But Booker expected the challenge.
“I knew I had it,” she said. “But I know that a lot of stuff happens in that last straightaway. I definitely wasn’t going to take anybody for granted. Yeah, I came into the finals with the fastest time but you see a lot of people run one time in the trials and run something totally different in the finals. I just had to stay focused and run my hardest.”
Booker’s plan was to be aggressive at the gun. Nijgia Snapp of Oakcrest had the same plan, although hers worked out quite different. Charlene Lipsey of Hempstead and New Rochelle’s Elizabeth Mott stormed to the pole position after 150 meters. Snapp was boxed into the middle of the pack with not much room to run with Mott and Lipsey fighting for the lead.
But when Lipsey started to fade, Snapp found an opening. Then Mott began to tire and Snapp went ahead to win in 54.91, a huge personal best for Snapp, who had never run faster than 60 seconds indoors. Her time is the fourth-fastest in the nation this season.
Snapp planned to be in the front when everyone cut it. She wanted to make a move down the back straightaway. If she wasn’t’ already leading, she could take the front there. None of that happened.
"I usually go into the race thinking I’m going to run it one way and I almost never run it that way,” she said. “I always end up running it different but it usually works out.”
Snapp got pushed to the middle of the pack early. Then she couldn’t get around the group with 150 left. But she took advantage of everyone else’s aggression.
“I don’t really have a set pattern for how to race the 400 yet,” she said. “I’m figuring it out.”
Carmel senior Kristin Reese decided that she would abandon her normal race pattern, at least for one day. Reese is best known as a front runner and has had her best races when she controls the pace. But Tuesday Reese let North Shore’s Brianna Welch carry the field. She sat between third and fourth while Emma Miller-Bedell of Tappan Zee and Shelby Greany of Suffern shadowed Welch.
But Reese moved into position with 300 left and over took Welch with 50 meters to go. Reese won in 2:11.37, the fourth-fastest time in the country. Welch finished second in 2:12.12.
“The last few race I’ve been it out really hard and running from the front and then people’s kick would beat me in the end,” she said. “This time we decided to do something different. “I just kind of hung out in the pack and then used my kick to win.”
In this race, Reese was less concerned with hitting splits or setting goals but instead just focused on racing.
“I think I’ve been putting to much pressure on myself,” she said. “This time I didn’t even look at the records or anything. I just wanted to go out and run. I’m pretty happy.”
Katie McCaffererty of Oak Knoll also produced an impressive 2 mile. She race virtually alone the entire way and won in 10:32.73, the second fastest time in the nation. Warwick Valley won the distance medley race in 11:49.59 with Claire Pettit, Kristen Jados, Tori Pennings and Lillian Greibesland.
Camden’s Assante Johnson, Jamie Jones, Marian Boyd and Kamice Smalls won the 4x200 in 1:41.19, the fourth-fastest time in the country.
“We just wanted to run a personal best,” Smalls said. “It’s very important for us to just show that we’re not weak and that we’re improving.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.
