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By Christopher Hunt
all photos courtesy Victah Sailer / www.Photorun.net
NEW YORK – Cardozo’s Chamique Francis said she almost cried. They all almost cried she said. Of all the professional races, outside of Tyson Gay’s stunning 200-meter race, Cardozo’s girls received the biggest uproar from the packed stands at Icahn Stadium.
Ahtyana Johnson, Claudia Francis, Tessa West and Chamique Francis crushed a top-notch field in the 4x400 relay at the Reebok Grand Prix in a meet record 3:39.96, the third-fastest time in the country this season and by far the fastest in the state.
The team had promised West, the only senior on the relay that they would run faster than 3:45 before she graduated.
“I was going to cry for her,” Francis said. “I was just so proud of her and of the team.”
It was the first race back for Francis since she ran the 4x400 at NY Relays in April and then hobbled through a 4x100 at Penn Relays that only aggravated a strained quadriceps muscle. Francis then injured her hamstring on Tuesday in dance class at school and ran with a purple tape on the back of her left leg.
But by the time Chamique Francis took the baton on the anchor leg, her job was only to put the finishing touches on a huge gap her team built, starting with Claudia Francis’s second leg where she blew the race open. She dropped the second leg from Jamaica’s Herbert Morrison Tech on the back straightaway and West’s 54.6 third leg sealed it.
Claudia Francis already earned a big win for the day when she led from wire-to-wire in the girls high school 800.The sophomore won in 2:09.72 and topped a field that included Garden City’s Emily Menges, who finished second in 2:09.88 and her sister, indoor national champ Phyllis Francis of Catherine McAuley (third, 2:10.33).
“She’s a trooper,” Cardozo coach Gail Emmanuel said of Claudia Francis’s double win. “We always tell her this is your race, just go out and do it. The thing is, she still doubts herself. She’s really a great half-miler and as you can see, a great quarter-miler. She’s really a great asset to the team. The team chemistry as just be the greatest this season and we’re happy she’s a part of that.”
The Judges’ Latiesha Philson, Chamique Francis, West and Johnson also won the 4x100 in a meet-record 46.67, lowering their state-leading time.
“This means a lot to us because we didn’t run that great at Penn Relays,” Johnson said. “I know it meant a lot to me personally.”
Johnson took some of the blame for a sub-par performance in the 4x400 at Penn Relays but secured the win in the 4x100 on the anchor leg and posted a 55.8 leadoff leg on the 4x400 Saturday.
“It’s great to come out here and do our best in front of this crowd,” Claudia Francis said. “We just wanted to get back and show everyone what we could do.”
Liverpool, the favorite now for the state championship in the 4x800 relay, won the boys event in 7:45.91, lowering its own state-leading mark. Ramapo also continued to make a bid as the favorite at the state meet in the boys 4x400 relay. The Rams’ Ryan Whitley (50.4), Dozie Ezemma (49.5), Mike Abelard (47.8) and Chidi Ezemma (47.9) finished third behind Jamaican schools St. Jago and Kingston College in 3:16.50, a Rockland County record. Fordham Prep was fourth in 3:16.66 and Holy Trinity fifth in 3:18.89.
“It’s the end of the season, we really want to do something big,” Chidi Ezemma said. “When we were going into the race, winning wasn’t really even a thought. We knew that we wanted to run fast. We didn’t think we’d run this fast though.”
Iona Prep’s Sean Halpin weathered an aggressive kick by Sean Atkinson of Nazareth to win the boys 800 in 1:54.93. Halpin made a move to break free from the pack with 300 left. Then Atkinson surged into the final curve. Halpin covered the move but couldn’t shake Atkinson. They rounded the bend almost even but Atkinson couldn’t hold on and finished second in 1:55.60.
“I just wanted to stay strong,” said Halpin, who accepted a scholarship to the University at Albany. “At first I thought it was Tyler Stewart (Colonie) or the kid from Jamaica (Waquar Decosta of Jamaica College) and I was concerned because they’re both quarter-milers. But I’ve seen Atkinson race a bunch of times and I felt like I could outkick him.”
Sheepshead Bay was in second in the boys 4x100 when a botched handoff turned into a dropped baton.
“We’ve been getting lucky because we’ve been messing up and still winning,”’ leadoff leg Darryl Bradshaw said. “We can’t bring that into nationals.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.
all photos courtesy Victah Sailer / www.Photorun.net