National Scholastic Athletics Foundation

Redemption Sunday for USA sprinters;
field event stars rack up medals

“Stars on the right, stripes on the left!  Stars on the right, stripes on the left!”

The chant came from Team USA’s 4x100 women Sunday night in Medellin at the Pan American Junior Championships as they were given American flags to display, drape themselves in, or race down the track with as if they were a human kite.  Morolake Akinosun, Jennifer Madu, Alexis Faulknor and Ana Holland had just blasted a 43.97 to run away with the night’s first relay and before it was over, Team USA officials could barely keep up with all of the flags they were wheeling and dealing.

After Saturday’s somewhat sub-par performance as a team (there were exceptions, to be sure), Team USA came out on fire Sunday.  And if there was a common theme, it was vindication for the American sprinters.  In the 100, 200 and 400 combined during the first two days, they had won just one gold, plus two silvers and two bronzes.  It’s safe to say at least seven of those athletes were disappointed with their individual finishes earlier – and every one of them enjoyed some vindication during a blistering relay sweep: the 4x1 women, plus a smoking 39.17 for the 4x100 men, a controlling 3:36.48 by the 4x400 women, and a got-a-big-lead-and-hung-on 3:06.57 for the 4x400 men.

But it wasn’t all about the relays, not at all.  Team USA’s throwers, jumpers and multi-eventers had a rockin’ night as well – highlighted by two of the best performances in prep history:  First, in the heptathlon, Kell (Marietta, GA) senior Kendell Williams scored 5,572, taking the silver medal and coming within six points of her HSR from the 2012 World Juniors.  Then Park City (UT) senior Megan Glasmann wrapped up her tremendous javelin campaign with a monster Pan Am record and PR 176-11, US#1 and #2 all-time.

A pair of collegians on the men’s side – Josh Freeman with a 66-3.75 shot put and Wally Ellenson with a 7-1 high jump – claimed Team USA’s other two golds on the night, bringing the total to seven.  That nearly equaled the haul for the first two days combined.

Seven other Americans won silver or bronze medals on the field and, in the night’s four individual running events, four more silvers were captured.  That brought the night’s total medals won to 18, and 39 for the three days.

So let’s break down what happened:

Four relays, four golds

Good stick passing has hardly been a given for American 4x100 teams at international championship events – just think back to the poor exchanges at the Moscow Worlds a few weeks ago.  But here, good passes were a strength and helped ensure that the U.S. depth and desire for vindication would overcome the lack of gold-medal-quality individuals.

Among the women’s quartet, only Central Florida frosh Alexa Faulknor (prepped at Serra, Gardena, CA) had gotten what she came for so far, with her long jump gold from Saturday.  Texas A&M frosh Jennifer Madu (prepped for Plano East, TX) had a heartbreaking silver in the 100, Regis Jesuit (Aurora, CO) senior Ana Holland a 4th in the 200, and Illinois frosh Morolake Akinosun (Waubonsie Valley, IL) a 4th and a 5th while contesting both short sprints. 

Sunday, Akinosun led off well and got it to Madu, who motored down the backstretch with the advantage.  Faulknor ripped a great curve, then a visibly determined Holland delivered a torrid anchor to finish it off.  The 43.97 left the crushed field more than two seconds back.

When asked about that determination, Holland laughed and said, “Yes, I’ve been told I have an interesting race face!”

“All of our exchanges were for the most part pretty good, for the time we put into it,” said Madu.  Added Akinosun, who along with Madu seemed to convey a sense of relief, “I’m just glad we came out here and got the stick around.”

Faulknor was clearly glad to be a part of the party as well: “I was so excited, I was like, Let’s go!  Morolake opened it up, then Jen, then me, then I was like, Go Ana!!” she said, getting lots of laughs from her teammates.

As for the Team USA 4x100 men, they had a pair of disappointed 100 meter finalists in Gibbs (St. Petersburg, FL) junior Trayvon Bromell and Clemson frosh Tevin Hester (Granville Central, Stem, NC), who were 3rd and 8th; the surprising 200 bronze medalist in Lincoln Gahanna senior Riak Reese; and a fresh, secret weapon of sorts in Cameron Burrell – the Ridge Point (Missouri City, TX) senior who was 3rd at USA Juniors, but whose season included some fantastic victories and marks.

Hester had the leadoff and powered out with a good one.  Then it was Burrell in the same role as Madu, another Texan crushing it on the backstretch.  Reese then produced some more good curve running and Bromell showed his form from his prep championship season with a smokin’ anchor.  Their 39.17 is a World Junior leader and was a half-second ahead of the Jamaican quartet.

“I was really motivated, because I didn’t do as well as I could in the 100 final,” said Hester afterward.  “I cramped up.  I didn’t properly hydrate, which is all on me, so I just wanted to come out here and make my team proud.”

“The 4x1 is one of my favorite races,” added Bromell.  “We had a lot of ambition and strong motivation.”

On the surface, it may have seemed like an odd situation for Burrell, just being on the relay, but it was the same deal for him at World Juniors last year and then also when he and his club mates came to USATF JOs and ripped a 40.06 4x100 there.  In fact, Burrell ran the same 2nd leg on that relay last month.  “I just wanted to come here, have some fun, and help this relay get the gold,” he said.

The vindication thing wasn’t as much an issue with the Team USA 4x400 women; after all, Texas frosh Courtney Okolo (Carrollton Smith, TX) and Detroit Country Day (MI) senior Kendall Baisden already had their 1-2 finish in the open 1-lapper.  But you still had Baisden, Florida frosh Robin Reynolds (Miami Jackson) and Baylor frosh Olicia Williams (St. Anthony’s, Huntington, NY) who wanted golds to bring home. 

Reynolds and Baisden each were members of World Youth and World Junior relays the past two years, so they had a lot of shared experience with which to start it off – and Reynolds was fresh, like Burrell here just for the relays.  She led it off (54.1) and by the time Baisden was through (53.5), a solid lead had been achieved.  Williams – the 800 silver winner – might have been the slowest team member, PR-wise coming in, but she extended the lead impressively with her 54.9.  Okolo barely had to work up a sweat (54.0) to maintain the lead for the easy 5-second win.

“This being my only race, I wanted to come out here and give it my all,” said Reynolds, wearing the USA vest for the fourth time.  “I wanted to set the tone and I did just that.”

“I had a real easy leg,” said Okolo.  “These girls gave me the stick in first place and all I had to do is keep the place.”

As for the American men’s 4x4, these guys were hungry.  None of them had won any medals, not here in Medellin, nor at any previous international competition as all of them were wearing the team colors for the first time.  Team coaches put the two guys who had been 4th and 5th in the open 400 – Foss (Tacoma, WA) senior Marcus Chambers and Illinois-frosh-headed-to-South-Plains Juan Paul Green (Carol City, Miami, FL) – on leadoff and anchor.  In the middle would be a pair of preps from the relay pool, Eureka (CA) junior Alexis Robinson and Howard Tech (Wilmington, DE) senior Lamar Bruton.

With the very motivated Chambers leading off with his 46.1, Team USA again had the lead from the gun.  With fresh legs, Robinson and Bruton hit 46.9 and 46.6, solidly maintaining the lead.  On the anchor, Green took off like a rocket in the first 200, trying to blow it wide open.  It almost backfired on him, however, as a Brazilian speedster closed hard on Green at the end.  But his 46.9 finished off the 3:06.57, for a .37-second win.

“I was extremely motivated,” said Chambers.  “I really wanted to get a medal in the open 400, but I didn’t ... It was the first time I was ever leadoff, but I just wanted to start it and get us the lead ... I just told my guys I was going to do everything to get us the gold medal and I did.”

“Oh man, when Marcus was coming in to give me the baton, I don’t think I felt an adrenaline rush like that since the state meet,” said Robinson.  “I just wanted to give Lamar the lead, so he could give Juan Paul the lead, too.”

Williams, Glasmann sparkle in prep finales

For four years, prep track fans have watched Kendell Williams do her thing, racking up an amazing number of championships, class records and finally national records as America’s brightest young multis star, with special hurdle and jumping talents to boot.  For Megan Glasmann, it’s been just in the past three months that she’s gone from being a “very good” javelinist, scaring the 160 barrier, to now #2 in prep history.  Both were special Sunday.

Since Williams set the HSRs in the heptathlon at World Juniors last July and the indoor pentathlon at New Balance Nationals Indoor in March, it’s been a relatively “quiet” spring and summer on the multis front for her.  Yes, she won Juniors with a 5,481, but there were no other 7-eventers save for a very modest 4,900-point effort during a cold, rainy AAU JOs in July.  Of course, she’d also continued her high- and long-jumping excellence and had a fantastic year in the 100H with a US#1 13.23 and New Balance Nationals Outdoor title.

But seeing Williams this weekend was seeing her at her multis best again.  She rolled a 13.48 100H to start, high jumped 5-9.75, then finished a good day one with a 34-5 shot put and 24.84 200.  That gave her 3,458 points, just 15 off her WJ record pace.

Sunday, she opened with a big 20-2.75 bound in the long jump (compared to 20-0.5 in Barcelona), then PR’d in the javelin with 103-3 (100-0).  So Williams needed 2:27.89 in the 800 to score 5,579 (she ran 2:26.60 in Barcelona) and break her HSR, but had to settle for 2:28.43.

Not surprisingly, the record wasn’t really the thing anyway.  It was Williams’ third Team USA and she wanted a medal and, hopefully, a win this time.  She was hardly the favorite with 6000+ scorer Yusleidys Mendieta Velasqeuz of Cuba in the meet, but Valasquez was off form and Williams led through six events before dropping to silver – the Cuban edged her with 5,627.

“It’s obviously bittersweet leading the whole competition, then losing it in the 800,” she said.  “But I know it was going to come down to the 800 and that she was a strong 800 runner, and I knew it was going to be tough.  I was still happy with it and being on the medal stand, but I wish I could have won.”

Meanwhile, Glasmann got the great mark ... and she won.  Wasn’t easy, though: She started with 142-7, then 157-3, then took the lead at 164-0 on her third throw.  Cuban Yulemnis Aguilar Martinez edged ahead of Glasmann in the 4th round, but the American responded with 167-9 in the fifth.  Finally, with the title wrapped up on the event’s final throw, Glasmann unleashed.  She had previously had smashing PRs at New Balance Nationals Outdoor, USA Juniors and the Pihtaputas competition in Finland, while there with the NSAF’s Kultan Keihas Javelin Project.  But this was more than just icing on the cake.

“It was definitely an interesting competition for me,” she said, noting how it was extended to nearly four hours by a late-finishing pole vault in the same part of the track.  “You take what’s thrown at you and do the best you can.  I started the competition in the 140s ... I really had to push through it.

“Seeing 170 is just thrilling for me,” she added.  “My mom told me that (on the last throw), one of the coaches asked her, Why is she throwing, she’s won?  But it was a chance for me to prove anything that I had in me ... hearing that 176 was incredible.”

More field success, plus track silvers

There was no individual event better for Team USA this week, medal-wise, than the shot put – where the men went 1-2 and the women 1-3.  Sunday, it was Southern Illinois frosh Josh Freeman (Cary Grove, IL) and Purdue frosh Coy Blair (Logan-Hocking, OH) overcoming rain and wind to hit 66-3.75 and 64-7.25 and top the medal stand.

“It got a little rough,” Freeman said.  “At the end of the second round, it started to pour.  The ring conditions weren’t so bad, but keeping the shot on my neck was   the hard part.  But once it stopped raining, the ring was cleared out and the shots were dry, so we were able to pick up in the final rounds and I came through with my big throw (round 5).

“When you hit a good throw, it almost seems effortless and that’s what it felt like ... it was just one of those throws where as soon as it left my hand, I knew it was gone.

Along with Glasmann’s jav gold, another Team USA throws medal came Sunday morning as North Carolina frosh Avana Story (Woodward, College Park, GA) notched silver in the women’s hammer with 188-4.  Overall, American throwers captured four golds, four silvers and two bronzes in those combined eight men’s and women’s events.

The American men’s high jumpers, triple jumpers, and pole vaulters also came up with two medals each.  In the HJ, it was Minnesota frosh Wally Ellenson (Rice Lake, WI) at 7-1 and Alabama frosh Justin Fondren (Oxford, MS) at 6-11.75 taking gold and bronze.  In the TJ, it was College of the Canyons frosh Tim White (Hart, Newhall, CA) at 54-1.25 and Baylor frosh Felix Obi (El Paso Franklin, TX) at 51-8.25 notching silver and bronze.  And in the PV, it was John Curtis (River Ridge, LA) HS senior Dylan Duvio at 17-0.75 and Harmony (Big Sandy, TX) senior Daven Murphree at 16-0.75 also taking silver and bronze.

In the HJ, while Ellenson was more happy with his result than Fondren, the duo was a happy example of what happens on these trips, as they clearly had a camaraderie that extended well beyond the track.  Said Ellenson, “It was great, first time with Team USA and this goofball with me all the time.  We’ve always been looking at each other the whole freshman year and I’m just glad I knew somebody on the team.  We were roommates and we just to hang out the whole time, talking about the competition and ... how he’s gonna beat me the next few years.

“That’s true, that is true,” laughed Fondren, after mugging for the camera.  “I gotta get back at him.” 

White came up with a monster PR, his 54-1.25, on his final jump, adding a foot to his previous best.  15-year-old Cuban phenom Lazaro Martinez Santrayu had the same mark, but a better second jump to edge White for gold.  Obi was off form, but still was good for bronze.

“Through the whole track meet I could have had that, but my second phase was off,” said White of his new personal record.  “But I got it towards the end.  It was a great experience here.”

The pole vaulters had to deal with the craziness of their poles being held up for days in customs back in Bogota, delaying the competition for two days.  Murphree never got his poles and that hardly helped him as he suffered his first loss of the year.  “Stuff happens and the next time I’ll be prepared for it,” Murphree shrugged.

Meanwhile, Duvio hurt his ankle a few days earlier causing it to swell grotesquely, but managed to get it in shape to capture the silver.  “I was the only one for the U.S. who actually got my poles in,” he noted.  “But I got set back because I sprained my ankle Friday.  I didn’t know I was even going to be able to jump today, it was pretty bad.  But I iced it and came back and felt pretty good today.”

Neither of them would have had an easy time winning in the best circumstance.  In no event did Americans face as familiar a rival as the Canadian gold medalist – none other than HSR-holder Shawn Barber.  Last year, Barber went 18-3.5 at AAU JOs and 18-2.5 for bronze at the World Juniors, all after a season at Kingwood Park (TX) that included a New Balance Nationals Outdoor victory and runner-up at NBN Indoors.  Murphree and Duvio both battled Barber in 2012 as juniors. 

“I love jumping with these guys,” said Barber.  “I remember them from high school ... It’s another great day to be a Canadian.”  He continues to compete in the U.S. as an Akron Zip.

Finally, Team USA came up with three silvers in individual running events Sunday.  Great Oak (CA) senior Jade Miller couldn’t quite match her PR or the 57.54 she ran in the morning semis, but still captured silver with 58.12.  Her future Harvard teammate Autumne Franklin, struggling with an ankle injury, had to abandon her semi about 250m in.

Also, former New York preps Kelsey Margey (Friends Academy, Long Island) and Brianna Nerud (North Shore HS, Glen Head) won silvers in the distances.  Margey, who just finished her freshman year at Villanova, was second only to the kick of Canadian Julia Zrinyi in the women’s 1,500 with her 4:38.84 – contested in a downpour and high winds.  Zulema Katia Arenas Huacasi of Peru set a red-hot pace in the women’s 3k steeple that Syracuse frosh Nerud couldn’t match, but she whipped everyone else in taking 2nd with 10:46.88.