By Christopher Hunt
all pics by www.wingedfootfotos.com
Cardozo sophomore Chamique Francis doesn’t have much experience running 300 meters. But she watched the meet. She knew the 55-meter champ was in her race. She knew the girl to her outside would challenge her all the way to the finish.
So she blew out the first 30 meters at the Bishop Loughlin Games. Francis knew she needed to get away from Dominque Booker of Immaculate Conception, who had just won the 55. Penn Wood’s Brittany Wallace, the second-fastest qualifier from the trials, was on her outside in Lane 6. Francis was right. Wallace pushed her every step.
“I was just thinking, ‘please let me come in first,’” she said. “My coach (Gail Emmanuel) always tells me that on the straightaway I reach for the finish line so I tried chopping my steps and driving. I guess I tried something new.”
Francis won the 300 meters in 38.88 seconds in just her second time ever running the event. Her time is the fastest in the country so far this season. The sophomore’s performance coupled with a win by teammate Claudia Francis – she claimed the 1,000 meters in 2:53.16, also an US #1 – proved that Cardozo won’t be reeling from losing Dalilah Muhammad and Alison Lee to graduation.
It seemed anyone with the last name Francis would make it to the top of the national leaderboard Saturday. Catherine McAuley’s Phyllis Francis, Claudia Francis’s older sister (they’ve not related to Chamique Francis), won the 600 in a nation-leading 1:31.13, two seconds ahead of Breanda Crump of Mount Vernon who broke the Section 1 record, finishing 1:33.36, but placing third. Hempstead junior Charlene Lipsey, won the second section in 1:32.34 to place second overall.
“I felt good,” Claudia Francis said. “I just came out from cross country. I just wanted to get a feel of the track again.”
A mixup with Lipsey’s entry landed one of the country’s best half-milers begrudgingly in the second heat. But Lipsey couldn’t match Francis’s time. Neither was especially concerned about racing each other in an early season meet and both showed that they are ahead of where they were at this point last season.
“That’s the point of keeping the system,” McAuley coach Mandisa Nicholson said. “We really want to pick up close to where we left off. … I’m not as worried about who’s in the race as how she’s racing. This was a good start. It was perfect.”
Even with the national-leading marks, there were no meet records, though some performances came close. Roslyn’s Emily Lipari was one. She took the entire week off from training after finishing 11th at the Foot Locker Cross Country Nationals last Saturday but still raced and won the 2-mile in 10:38.66, a little more than two seconds off the meet record.
“I’m not disappointed,” she said. “But if you get so close and you don’t get it, it’s like, ‘ugh.’”
Lipari said she lost focus in the second mile. She went through the first half of the race in 5:07 and finished the second mile in 5:31.
“I knew I had to go out faster than 5:15 if I wanted to break the record so I was focused on that,” she said. “But after that I wasn’t thinking about pace. My head was just kind of all over the place. I think I got a little lackadaisical.”
Suffern junior Jen Clayton got off to a great start for her season. She won the long jump in 19 feet, 5.25 inches. In the past she has struggled to show consistency but Saturday, four of her six attempts were beyond 19 feet.
“Overall, I’m really satisfied with this,” Clayton said. “I was expecting to go 18 feet. It’s a lot of stuff in the jumping and the run-throughs that I had to work on.”
Last year, Clayton was still relatively new to the long jump when though she was among the best in the nation with a 20-0.25 jump last year. The meet record is 19-7.50 set by Uniondale’s Keyon Soley in 1996.
“I’m so much more comfortable on the board now,” she said. “There are so many things that go into it. Last year, I just kind of got good out of nowhere and I was all over the place.”
Vanessa Stewart of North Babylon couldn’t match her own meet record but still won the shot put with a toss of 43-10. Stewart has already had throws of 45-3 and 46-11 this season. Last week though, she busted open her normal shot and used a harder one Saturday. Stewart said she couldn’t get used to the grip.
“It wasn’t good,” she said. “Nothing went right.”
Despite her performance Stewart is excited and confident about the season. She has begun lifting weights for the first time and started working with new North Babylon assistant coach Ben Kaiser, who she said has already helped her improve.
“It’s helping a lot,” she said. “I really think I have a chance to win states this year.”
Chrissy Finkel of Montville (N.J.) missed her attempts at a would-be meet record of 12-6 but she cleared 12-0 to win the pole vault. Tory Worthen of Council Rock South and Mandissa Marshall of Crestwood also cleared 12-0 but Finkel won with the least amount of misses.
“We also know not to expect much coming in since this is the first meet,” Finkel said. “I would have liked to have cleared 12-6 but I’m happy. In the beginning I was very nervous just watching the other girls warm up. But once I got the first height out the way I calmed down.”
Finkel suffered a stress fracture in her right ankle last year that could have ruined her season but she returned to finish fourth in the pole vault at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships.
Janice Jackson of Medgar Evers missed the 55 hurdles record by two-hundreds of second. She won in 8.01, also the fastest time in the United States this season.
“I could have done better,” she said. “I worked out a lot of kinks this summer but I still have things to work on.”
Jackson, who is being recruited by Clemson, USC and Villanova, held off Cardozo’s Latisha Philson by six-hundredths of a second. They came off the last hurdle almost simultaneously but Jackson made the difference with the last five steps and a hard lean at the line.
“I saw her out the corner of my eye and thought, ‘Oh hell no, I have to just drive and win this.’”
One of the most spectacular girls race was the 4x200. Mount Vernon’s Kenina Bonner, Breanda Crump, Shamika Mindingall and Tanaya Yarde won in 1:43.83. Yarde ran down Camden’s anchor leg. Yarde was trying to pass from the second she took the baton but couldn’t get around and it seemed she’d run out of room but off the last turn she made one last surge for the win. Camden finished second in 1:43.89.
And afterward they celebrated like they’d won the state meet.
“I was thinking I can’t pass her,” said Yarde, a freshman. “When I got to that last straight I just knew I had to do this for my team.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.
