With an opportunity to attend nearly any school of his choice on a track scholarship,
Middletown (Del.) standout Marquis Dendy had narrowed his college choices down to Florida, LSU, Miami and Texas.
But it was the attraction of joining an established program with a jump coach, Dick Booth, who Dendy calls "the best jump coach in the nation," that convinced the 6-foot-3 senior to choose the University of Florida as his college destination.
"They have a really good cluster of jumpers down there," Dendy told The News Journal. "It came down to whether I wanted to be with the Miami Hurricanes and help build a program from the ground up, or do I want to go to a school like LSU, who is kind of average, they just need a couple more pieces, or go to an already really strong program."
Dendy, one of the nation's top triple jumpers, captured first place at Saturday's Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships with a state-record jump of 52 feet, 1.5 inches. Last year Dendy's triple jump resume included titles at the Delaware Division I outdoor Championships, Penn Relays, AAU Junior Olympics and U.S. Junior Nationals.
In addition to his prowess in the triple jump, he is ranked in the Top 10 nationally in the long jump at 25-5.25 and took second place in last weekend's DIAA Indoor Track and Field Championships with a leap of 21-11.25.
"Marquis had for him a good day," Middletown coach Bill DuBois said. "He had some very long jumps, maybe 24 or 25 feet, in the long jump, but they were slight fouls. He had difficulty finding his steps. His triple jump was outstanding."
Dendy will now prepare to finish out his scholastic career outdoors before heading to Gainesville, where he plans to major in computer software engineering.
"Marquis and his family put a great deal of thought into his choice of schools," DuBois added. "I believe his choice of Florida was made for all the right reasons, both athletically and academically."
TATNALL WINS BOTH GENDERS IN DELAWARE TRACK AND FIELD COMPETITIONTatnall (Wilmington, Del.) became the first school since Dover High in 1995 to win
both the boys and girls indoor track and field titles the same year. The
boys won for the second straight year and the girls ran to their third
title in five years. That's not a bad resume for a small private school
in Wilmington with extremely high academic standards.
"This state
championship was a true full team effort," Tatnall coach Pat Castagno
said after the meet. "Many kids on this team sacrificed personal glory,
individual state championships and personal best times to run three and
four events for team points. I could not be more pleased with the
insistence by these young boys and girls to put team before self. In my
opinion, this is the reason for the double win today. Emotion wins
championships, and these kids ran with heart and emotion out there
today."
Jon Buzby is the sports columnist for the Newark Post, a freelance
writer, and on the broadcast team for the 1290AM The Ticket High School
Football and Basketball Games of the Week. You can reach him at
jonbuzby@hotmail.com.
