Photos by Don Roch, Mary DiBiase Blaich, and Tim Fulton
Richmond Ahadzi and his looked up at the JumboTron hovering above the track, waiting for a time to show up.
Sheepshead Bay never doubted that they won. They were waiting to find out if they broke the national record. Then the time popped up – 28.93 seconds, the fastest scholastic time ever in the shuttle hurdle relay (4 hurdles). Ahadzi, Naquan Alexander, Jose Farley and Jose Marc Sears won the shuttle hurdles national championship, after three straight second-place finishes, at the National Scholastic Indoor Championships Friday.
They eclipsed Fordham Prep’s record of 29.15, set last year when Fordham Prep nipped Sheepshead Bay at the finish.
“We were looking to break the national record,” Ahadzi said. “We knew we won. We wanted to break that record. We broke it in practice.”
The team said they clocked a 27.1 in practice on Tuesday. They even joked about looking to run 25 seconds.
“We’ve been hungry for a national record for a while,” Ahadzi said.
Even while Sheepshead Bay, running under Sheepshead’s Finest, came into the meet as the favorite, coach John Padula said the team still had something to prove. Since their best hurdler, Darryl Bradshaw graduated, people expected a weaker team than the one that lost at NSIC last year and won at Nike Indoor Nationals a day later.
Fordham Prep scratched from the race because Bruce Grant injured his hamstring so there was no chance for a rematch. Ahadzi took the blame for last year’s lost, even though Bradshaw ran the anchor. Ahadzi showed up late that day.
“I was late,” he said. “I didn’t get a proper warmup. Today I was the first one here, making sure that everyone was ready, trying to be a leader.”
Ahadzi rode in back of the car all the way to Boston last year. This time he and Alexander reminded Farley and Marc Sears, that if they blew it Friday, they’d be cramped in the back for the 3½-hour ride.
“I don’t know who’s going to be in the back now,” Ahadzi said. “Probably the guys that haven’t run yet.’
The meet also saw a national leader in the 4x200. Coolidge won in 1:28.75 with Dominic Harden, Lindo Demetrius, Josh Ford and Eyong Oma. They finished just ahead of Speed City, who ran four sections earlier in 1:28.79.
“We were looking 1:27,” said Harden, who ran leadoff. “We ran 1:29 on a flat track.”
Oma held off Track Eastern Carolina’s anchor, which faded on the home stretch and ended up fifth overall. But the challenge on the back straightaway might have pushed Coolidge to the narrow win.
“It’s about trust,” Harden said. “I have trust in my team. We have trust in each other. That’s what team’s about.”
Harden said he could barely find words for winning a national title for a team that only have eight members at the start of the season. Now the team is up to 11.
“Our practices may look small but it looks like we’re training for the Olympics,” he said.
The Olympics might be where Ontario, Canada’s Taylor Stewart is headed someday after he set a personal best in the long jump 7.59 meters (24 feet, 11 inches). He already had the event won with a 7.47-meter jump earlier but decided to hang loose on his last attempt.
“I got the run up that I wanted,” he said. “It felt like everything just came together.”
Justin Hunter of Virginia Beach, Va., finished second in the long jump 7.46 (24-5.75). But at the same time he was competing in the long jump, he was bouncing back and forth to the high jump, which he won, clearing 7-0.25. As hectic as it was to compete in both events at once, Hunter, who committed to Tennessee, almost looked to be rushing from one event to the other.
“I like to keep going back and forth like that,” he said. “It keeps me in a good rhythm and keeps me loose.”
One of the more exciting events of the afternoon was the sprint medley relay. Midwood lead through the first two legs until Newburgh took over on the third. The crowd waited in anticipation when St. Anthony’s senior Patrick Farmer took the baton for the 400-meter third leg but Farmer fumbled the stick badly on the exchange. Once he regained his stride, he ripped past Midwood and close in on Newburgh’s quarter-miler.
Danny Zaccariello of St. Joseph’s by the Sea erased all the jockeying up front when he zipped by the entire field and took over with two laps to go. Newburgh’s Randy Patterson had started to fade and St. Anthony’s Payton Hazzard tucked in behind Zaccariello. The St. Joe’s senior was leading headed into the final straight when started to drift outside when Hazzard tried to make a move. Hazzard saw daylight on the inside and used it.
St. Anthony’s Warner Cooley III, Anthony Barnes, Farmer and Hazzard finished in 3:30.752 as Hazzard just out-leaned Zaccariello. St. Josesph’s by the Sea finished in 3:30.760.
“I did not think I was going to get all those guys,” Hazzard said. “I thought if the Midwood kid passed me, I didn’t think I’d have a chance. So I just stayed close. I tried to pass on the outside but he went outside. I saw a little room so I went for it.”
“I was just trying to hit my splits,” he said. “I wanted to come in and run 35’s. I was a little off that but it was still a great effort.”
Haddonfield (N.J.) won the distance medley relay, improving its nation-leading time to 10:09.78 with Ben Potts, Jordan Harris, Colin Baker and Jon Vitez. Potts worked himself out of trouble on the first leg then Baker’s 1:56.3 third leg gave the team the lead.
“It’s pretty awesome,” Vitez said. “Winning a national title is pretty sweet. Ben will be the first to tell you that he wasn’t happy with his race. But it just shows that we weren’t clicking on all cylinders today and still ran a fast time.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.