On Track With Duck

Jon "Duck" Gray, already a stalwart on this site from his football and basketball coverage, is now on the track trail. You may reach Duck at jdtrilogy@aol.com.

MAY 22
PUBLIC LEAGUE TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS
(At Edison High)
   This was a terrific event. First, let us begin with the boys. Central High School which has endured the bittersweet taste of missing the playoffs in football and losing in the Basketball semi-finals, got the sweet taste of victory. Their headliner today was two-sport standout, Khary Kenyatta. Also a key player in basketball, Kenyatta ran an impressive 2:00.88 to win the 800m, as Central finished one-two-three in the event. And running anchor for the Lancers in the 4x400, he made up ground to nudge by Gratz to finish second behind Overbrook. Also, playing a big role for the Lancers was Mike Syrnick, who finished second in 3200m run behind Simon Gratz star, Damony Giles. (9:41.64, that is blazing fast). And the strong effort of the 4x800m team (Kaloma Cardwell, Matt Grilli, Cameron French, Mike Tarras) which won with a time of 8:28:17. Other strong performances for the Public League Boys, Overbrook's Dewayne Dawkins beat out Frankford's Sharif Nash to win the 200m in a time of 22.50. And then added a triumph over Gratz's John Fudge in the 400 Hurdles, with a time of 56.12. Fudge is the Truth by the way he won the 110 Hurdles in a time of 14:34. Gratz's 4x100 meters time was awesome as well. Randal Scott, Richard Britt, Nimrod Speaks and David Hurd ran 43.34. Also running well was Ivan "Ice" Baldwin of Ben Franklin who won the 100m dash in a time of 11.13. Adrian Stephens of Overbrook won the 400 in a time of 49.69. With all due respect now on to the main attraction: the GIRLS. William Penn Girls dominated again and guess who were the headliners? That's right Juanita Broaddus and Christina Smith The two juniors have serious resumes. This past winter, Broaddus won the 200m in the Nike Indoor National. Smith as a sophomore was number two in 400 meters at the same event. They ran wild again. Broaddus was simply amazing, that is why some compare her to Marion Jones. 11.94 in the 100, 23.87 in the 200 and 55.08 in the 400. Smith was just as scintillating. (14.61 in the 100 meter Hurdles and 1:00.4 in the 400 hurdles. For Penn, it is the equivalent of having Eddie Griffin and Dajuan Wagner on the same time. And in all fairness that might be a diss to Smith and Broaddus. (Now everybody knock on wood.) They could be Olympians. (Knock on some more wood.) At least that is what I said when I asked them to pose for pictures with Amar and me. Tyeshia Thomas was also solid, the senior won the 800m in a time of 2:17:43 and temed with Lynda Whitfield, Shantia Byrd and Kandis Worthington to win the 4x 400. Madonna Patterson won the 1600m in a time of 5:22.25. Total domination. Yes, some runers could keep up like Tyneisha Gardner (Girl's High), Thlayia White (Gratz) and Angela Wells (Gratz), but it was all William Penn.
   Sidenotes- The Penn girls celebrated hard. They even took time out to "punk" the Central Boys. It was funny. Lynda Whitfield " It feels great to have won the title." And Central's Jordan Anderson on the boys triumph "Nothing feels better than this." Tom "Hockey Puck" McKenna had Amar and I laughing all day.
   (Ted's note: When Hockey Puck called me with the results, he said, "Khary Kenyatta won the 800 miles." I said, "Try that again. What did he win?" He said again, "The 800 miles." I said, "Puck, it's 800 METERS!!!" He said, "Oooh, sorry." Then he started
cracking up. "I got that kid runnin' 800 miles. Ha, ha, ha. He'd be pretty tired.")

MAY 8
PUBLIC LEAGUE TRACK
Benjamin Johnston Memorial Stadium
Ah brother, this meet was interesting. Both the Frankford boys and William Penn girls won their respective meets going away. Frankford Boys have a young nucleus that has a chance to be very good next year. Their entire 4x400 team is underclassmen. And while nobody runs faster than 49.3 (Sharif Nash) they should shave some time off of their relay time by next year. At this meet, Frankford would sometimes ease up while winning a race, thus making their times slower than they should have been. (But you can understand, get this meet over with and get ready for Divisions and Public League Champs.) The William Penn girls also didn't over exert themselves. Two of their respective stars Juanita Broaddus and Christina Smith won events like they were in slow motion. The long jump looked to be condemned but Broaddus still won with a leap of 14-7. Smith was on cruise control to win the 400 in a time of 1:01.1. Madonna Patterson, provided the meet's highlight, with a small amount of teams and time constraints, the girls and the boys ran together for the 800 meters title. Patterson beat the top boys finisher easily. The poor guy from Frankford (I didn't take his name down because I would have had too much fun with it) was trying his hardest to catch up over the last 100 meters. Patterson didn't break a sweat. His Frankford teammates laughed it up for a while. Speaking of laughing, this kid Martin Luther King has is a laugh a minute, his name is Anton Green. And he looks like something out of the 1980's. He could be a good runner in time, he has the build of a distance runner. Also, one runner from West Philly High, ran a decent meet in the relays and 100 and 200 meters, her name is Angela Jones, a promising junior. So it's obvious we're in a bridge year in the Pub, next year we should see some good/great times for boys and girls.
SideNotes -- The Public League Football team was warming up and practicing for the Daily News Eagles All-City Classic. It was good to see a whole lot of familiar faces out there.

APRIL 26-27
PENN RELAYS
(At Franklin Field)
The loud roar heard across Philadelphia Saturday afternoon, was when Penn senior Madonna Patterson passed the baton to Penn junior Juanita Broaddus, with the Lions way in front of Merion Mercy and Glassboro in the Tri-State Girls 4X400, Broaddus preceded to run a 54.3 split as William Penn was victorious in the their second relay championship of the day. The time of the 4x400 championship was 3:44.92, and the time of the triumph in the 4x100 TriState was 47.52.This all without injured Eastern Kentucky recruit, Tyeshia Thomas. Otherwise, schools from the Philadelphia leagues didn't fare so well. Overbrook won the Public League Boys 4x400 with a time of 3:24.75. Their second leg was extremely strong. Cardinal O'Hara boys won the Catholic League 4X400, with a time of 3:24:37. They both finished middle of the pack in the Tri-State race. This year the Relays didn't have legendary announcer, Jack O'Reilly do his trademark, "Are You Ready?!?!" pronouncement before the Boys Public League race. That always gets my public school blood going. It mattered because for some reason there was a whole lot of bumping and stumbling in the first leg of the race. Anyway, people, we have roughly another month to go in the track season, so we haven't seen the best times yet.
Sidenotes- The security people were terrible. Fire them. I'll discuss this in an e-mail form only; no four-letter words on Ted's site. 50,000 plus in attendance on Saturday? OK, I didn't think the crowd was that big. Marion Jones, Maurice Greene and Jon Drummond were participants in US vs. the World. Olympic Development races. It was awesome.

APRIL 23
PUBLIC LEAGUE RELAYS
(At Marcus Foster Stadium)
"Guess who's 'biz-z-ack' (back), covering Public League track. Hello everybody on the edge of the best track meet in the World, the Penn Relays: the Public League Relays provided an opportunity for many teams to have a trial run at some of the little things in relay running. Anyway, I was most impressed with the girls. (Yes, I don't watch track for the fellas.) William Penn's ladies were excellent as usual. They won five relays. The most impressive one for me was the performance in the 4x400 (My favorite track event.) They won in a respectable time of 3:55.4. Their entire team is loaded with talent. Juanita Broaddus (considered on the top track prospects in the country and only a junior.) Christina Smith, Madonna Patterson and Kandis Worthington. Simon Gratz and Murrell Dobbins have very good teams as well. Gratz was really impressive in winning the 4x200 for the ladies, and for the boys. Making a statement was Overbrook's boys 4x100, anchored by Omar Sanders ran 44.6. This meet was held in less than ideal track weather. It was cold for track. Also doing well on the track was 400 runner Rodney Smith a basketball player at Mansion; who teamed with a teammate to win the high jump. And ran a nice 400 split. Brent Fisher (G-Town) did excellent in the high jump with a 6-2, without using a flop technique or scissor kick. He had the top individual score but didn't have a teammate. I'll take this time to ask for a schedule for track. Hit my e-mail. And my partner, Amauro Austin as well, we'll tag team the track and field. See ya at the Penn Relays.
Sidenotes: Dorian Brewer is the funniest man in the "Pub." I can't tell you how funny he is, just talk to him and you'll need an asthma inhaler. Pub track has always been good, I mean when I was in school their was potential Olympic talent on some teams. Trinity Gray (FLC), Deworski Odom (Brook) and plenty of Penn girls with bigtime talent. I don't know if right now, is as good as then. But from all account, nothing can touch the Pub in the 70's and early 80's, when the best track teams in the country were always from Philly and South Jersey.