PHILADELPHIA – Tyrone Walker couldn't ignore the roar of 49,810 fans, many of them waving Jamaican flags.
The
Westfield (Chantilly, Va.) middle distance runner out-ran Sanj Powell of Kingston College (East Kingston, JAM) on the anchor of the 3,200-meter relay to win the Championship of America race in the Penn Relays at Franklin Field on Saturday.
Members of the Westfield 3,200
relay team pose with the pinwheel
after winning the Championship of
America race. From left: Jeff
Edmondson, Tyrone Walker, Nathan
Kiley and Max Chambers.
Photo by Kirby Lee
It capped a splendid three days for American prep track and field stars in the 118th meeting of of the prestigious games that have annually been dominated by Jamaica. Especially so of late.
"I heard the crowd but I didn't think that they were cheering for me but they were cheering pretty loud," Walker said with a laugh. "It was very nerve racking but at the same time very exciting to run. I never ran in front of this many people before."
Walker took advantage of his moment in spotlight to help Westfield persevere to win in 7 minutes, 39.73 seconds. The time by Max Chambers, Jeff Edmonson, Nathan Kiley and Walker was the fastest in the U.S. this season. Kingston was second in 7:40.52, followed by Holmwood Tech (Christiana, JAM) in 7:45.47.
Jamaica schools won the 400 and 1,600 relays. Though Walker anchored the victory all four Westfield runners definitely had a leg in it.
"I don't think that we had it in our dreams to win this honestly," Kiley said. "I just felt the crowd definitely motivated us. There were a lot of them cheering for Jamaica and a lot of them cheering for the U.S. I felt that there was just not a race competition but almost like representing our country. As far as representing our nation, this is the biggest thing that we will ever do."
It took heroic efforts by Kiley and Walker to notch Westfield's first Penn Relays win in school history. Kiley brought the Bulldogs from fifth to first place with a 1:51.3 third leg for the fastest split of the race. Walker finished with a 1:54.4 carry to overtake Kingston College's Powell with 150 meters to go.
Walker was unfazed after Powell made a surge into the lead at the top of the backstretch.
"I knew that I could beat him because he started to kick a little early," Walker said. "Once we were on the backstretch that I could outkick him."
Tyrone Walker crosses first for
Westfield.
Photo by Kirby Lee
Kiley never lost confidence in Walker.
"We all know the way that Tyrone runs and he is a very strong finisher," Kiley said "And when I saw the guy was kicking with 300 meters left, Tyrone was just going to wait for this guy to burn himself out and be able to kick."
Kiley also credited the efforts of Chambers and Edmondson, who ran 1:57.6 and 1:56.4 on the first two legs of the Westfield relay.
"Max (Chambers) got out really hard in a five lane corner track with 12 teams in the same lane," Kiley said. "Jeff (Edmondson) was able bring us up into the later pack and separate the gap. I was able to bring us into first and Tyrone (Walker) was able to seal the deal. I think that we all had a significant role."
Westfield ran the top time of 7:48.59 in the preliminaries on Friday.
The time was slightly off the team's season best of 7:45.51 to place fifth in the New Balance Indoor Nationals at the Armory in New York City on a 200-meter banked track.
Kiley tried to not to get over-confident after Westfield's heat victory in the prelims on Friday. Particularly with Boys & Girls (N.Y.) and Pope John XXIII (N.J.), which finished ahead of Westfield at the New Balance Indoor meet in Saturday's Championship of America final.
"We ran against a lot of these teams in indoor track and lot of them beat us so coming as the first seed in prelims against all of them put a huge target on our backs," Kiley said. "So we had to come out with a lot to prove."
Jamaica certainly made its point in the 400 and the 1,600 relays competing in front of a crowd that included Prime Minster Portia Simpson Miller.
In the 400, Wolmer's Boys (Kingston, JAM) won in 40.34 as part of a Jamaican sweep of the top three places with Jamaica College (Kingston, JAM) and Herbert Morrison (Montego Bay, JAM).
Potomac (Oxon Hill, Md.) was the top U.S. finisher in fourth.
In the 1,600, Munro College (St. Elizabeth, JAM) won in 3:11.91 to lead a procession of Jamaican schools in the top six places. Both the U.S. entrants Junipero Serra (Gardena, Calif) and Trenton (N.J.) were both disqualified.
In the field events, Jamaicans Cristoff Bryan of Wolmer's Boys won the high jump (6-11.50) and Clive Pullen of Kingston College was first in the long jump at 24-3. Michael Jenson of
Appoquinimink (West Middletown, Del.), won the pole vault at 16-4¾. Adrian Peterson of
Lakeland (Suffolk, Va.) won the triple jump with a wind-aided 50-0.
Long Beach Poly's Ariana Washington
poses with all the gold.
Photo by Kirby Lee
Eric Futch of
Penn Wood (Lansdowne, Pa.) won the 400-meter hurdles in a nation-leading 51.77 and ran a 48.5 split on the anchor of the 1,600 relay that won the Philadelphia Area race in 3:18.16.
Senior Edward Cheserek (KEN), who ran a 4:06.2 leg on the 1,600-meter anchor of
St. Benedict's Prep (Newark, N.J.) winning distance medley relay team, was chosen as the high school boys athlete of the meet for relay events.
Long Beach Poly (Calif.) sophomore
Ariana Washington was the girls relay athlete of the meet. Washington anchored the Poly 400 relay team to a victory to help the Jackrabbits become the first American school to repeat as champion. Washington also placed third in the long jump and was the top American finisher.
Sam Mattis of
East Brunswick (N.J.), who won the discus with a nation-leading mark of 64.60 meters, the No. 2 mark in meet history, was named the high school athlete of the meet for individual events. Mary Cain of
Bronxville (N.Y.) earned the girls award after winning the mile in a meet and national sophomore record 4:39.28 following a 62.5 final lap.
