RANDALLS ISLAND –Ahtyana Johnson had just erased what looked like an impossible gap in the 4x100 relay. But when she finished, she turned around looking confused.
“How did that happen?” she asked.
The Cardozo junior wasn’t baffled by her own speed but by the shoe that she was now carrying. It was Lateisha Philson’s right shoe and sock, the ones that she left just a couple feet from the starting line.
Philson had literally run out of her shoes. She ran the first leg with a bare right foot. Philson didn’t injure herself but lost some ground although not enough to put the Judges out of touch. Philson, Chamique Francis, Elizabeth Myers and Johnson won the 4x100 at New York Relays in 46.97, zipping by Medgar Evers with 50 meters left. The Cougars finished second in 43.37.
Cardozo’s time is the fastest in the state this season as the Judges tune up for Penn Relays next week.
“I’m surprised that our stick passes were nice,” Johnson said. “That’s what we’ve been focusing on, is getting the stick passes together. That’s the big thing for us.”
Cardozo seemed to use the meet as an opportunity to iron out kinks before the team tries to make a splash at Penn Relays after a disappointing showing in the 4x100 and 4x400 last year. Philson, who is primarily a hurdler, won the 400 in 56.89. She could be a difference-maker on the team’s 4x400 if she’s put in a position to chase.
Philson will admit she isn’t fond of the 400, which is part of the reason that she consistently is slow off the start line. But the sophomore is explosive in the last 200 meters, which how she won Saturday and why she is usually trusted to leadoff the indoor nation championship relay.
“This was just to prepare for Penn,” she said. “I saw Malekah (Holland of Bishop Ford) coming up on my side so I knew I had to move. I don’t like to go out that hard because I really don’t want to die at the end.”
Francis also won the invitational 200 final in 24.61 but was disappointed with the time after her 23.88 performance at the U.S. Area Youth Olympic Selection Trials in Texas two weeks ago.
Shanique DaSilva of Bishop Ford enjoyed a breakthrough race in the 800. DaSilva had control headed into the last lap until Bishop Loughlin’s Kali Kendall made a strong move down the back straightaway.
“When she passed me I thought it was all over,” said DaSilva, who made an oral commitment to compete at Georgetown next year. “Then when we got to the straightaway I could see her head start moving and her form breaking down. I knew I had a chance.”
DaSilva challenged Kendall when Kendall initially tried to take the front, the effort came back to bite Kendall in the home stretch.
“I tired to keep her on the outside for as long as I could so that in the end she’d be as fatigued as I was.”
Both runners were dragging with 50 meters left but DaSilva crept ahead and Longwood’s Jenny Johnston pulled into second. DaSilva won in 2:13.39 with Johnston second in 2:14.08 and Kendall third in 2:14.84.
“This is like a marker for me,” DaSilva said. “Last year I ran 2:15 here so to run two seconds faster is a huge confidence boost to me. I had a really good cross country season and that just crossed over into indoors and now outdoors.”
Warwick Valley’s Kayla Leahy won the pole vault at 11 feet, 2 inches. Teammate Jaqueline Kasal won the 2,000 steeplecase in 7:22.36
By Christopher Hunt
RANDALLS ISLAND –Ahtyana Johnson had just erased what looked like an impossible gap in the 4x100 relay. But when she finished, she turned around looking confused.
