By Christopher Hunt
RANDALLS ISLAND – Sometimes there’s no need for a post-race analysis. Cardozo coach Gail Emmanuel went with her first reaction when Chamique Francis crossed the line in 100 meters.
“OMG Chamique,” Emmanuel said. “Oh my God.”
You know a performance is special when it renders a coach to text-message lingo. Francis, known as a quarter-miler, won the 100 at the PSAL championships Sunday in a wind-aided 11.46 seconds at Ichan Stadium. The time would have shattered the PSAL record of 11.76 that Diane Dixon set it 1982 if not for the illegal wind.
But Francis had already set the league record, running 11.74 in the trial heats. Her heat was the only one of four that posted a legal wind.
‘We just wanted to cover all the events,” Emmanuel said. “That’s why she was running the 100.”
Covering events was the least of Cardozo’s worries. The Judges won their third straight PSAL outdoor championship by a landslide, with 107 points. Medgar Evers finished second with 60 and Clinton third with 56.
Francis won the high jump and the 400 meters, her trademark event, in 54.44. The junior has run a handful of 100-meter races this season but with the purpose of working on her speed for the 400. Dixon still holds the distinction of the PSAL greatest 400 runner but if Francis’s race was any indication of her increased speed, then even Dixon’s 400 record (51.75) could be in jeopardy by the national championships in two weeks.
“It felt easy,” Francis said. “I felt relaxed.”
In fact, Francis said she could have run faster.
“Sometimes I don’t really think during races,” she said. “I got out really well and I didn’t see anybody. I wanted to surge in that drive phase. Then I realized I could go faster and I surged at the end. I feel like I could have surged twice in the race.”
It was that kind of afternoon for Cardozo, where they dominated everything. Sophomore Lateisha Philson struggled with tightness in her right hamstring all afternoon. She had problems in the 400 hurdles and limped noticeably after the trials of the 100 hurdles. But she looked her best in the final, winning in a wind-aided 13.92.
Philson would go into the state meet in Vestal Saturday as a favorite against Saratoga’s defending champ Madalyne Smith, but Cardozo and Medgar Evers are both keeping their 4x400 relays home this weekend to race at the Adidas Grand Prix Saturday at Ichan Stadium.
Still, with Philson was struggling and not attending the state meet, she never considered sitting out the final.
“I really just wanted to break 14,” she said. “It means a lot to me.”
Cardozo monopolized the scoreboard with Francis, Philson and Ahtyana Johnson, who finished second in the 200 in 24.14 and 400 in 55.27. Freshman Sabrina Southerland won the 1,500 and finished second in the 800 in 2:16.65. Plus Alexis Panisse finished third behind Southerland in the 1,500 and placed second in the 3,000.
Cardozo isn’t just bulldozing the PSAL with its three top scorers. They’ve also found even more depth with Southerland and Alexis Panisse, who was second in the 3,000 and third in the 1,500.
“For me to part of that is so crazy,” Southerland said. “Chamique, Lateisha and Anty are so good.”
While Cardozo literally ran away with the meet, Columbus senior Whitney Fountain was making a farewell appearance as a high school athlete. Fountain set personal best winning the 400 hurdles in 59.88. She won her signature event, the 200, in 23.60, also a wind-aided mark.
For the Clemson-bound senior, it wasn’t good enough.
“I didn’t get over to the start in time,” she said. “I didn’t warm-up properly. I wasn’t happy with the time. My readiness just wasn’t there. I’m disappointed. It wasn’t a good way to end (my high school career).”
In the triple jump, Midwood’s Imani Oliver won with a leap of 41 feet, 9 inhces, a mark that would have bettered the PSAL record of 41-3 set by Michelle Hickman of A.P. Randolph in 1996. But without a wind gauge at the jump pit, the mark will not count for record-keeping.
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.