DEFENDING champions Hydel Prep School retained their title by amassing 243 points in the 40th staging of the 2017 Jamaica Independent Schools Association (JISA)/Tastee Preparatory Schools Track and Field Championships which ended at the National Stadium last Saturday.

It was also the 12th consecutive year that the Mandela Highway-based white and blue clad aggregation coached by Corey Bennett was coming out on top, but their 18th overall title.Meanwhile, arch-rivals and former conquerors Vaz Prep finished second again in the points standing with a combined boys and girls scores of 215 points.The other top finishers in the overall combined (boys and girls) points standing were Mona with 118 points, followed by Belair on 116, Quest with 73.5, Stella Maris on 67, Lannaman’s with 67, Wolmer’s on 61, Mount St Joseph on 58, Emmanuel Christian Academy with 57, and Sts Peter and Paul Prep with 50 points.Hydel also retained their girls’ title with 154 points ahead of Vaz on 81, Mona with 77 and Belair with 63 points, while Vaz turned the tables on Hydel by amassing 134 points to their rivals’ 89 points in the boys’ section. Belair finished third with 53 points.By midday on Saturday, the third and final day of the championships, it was close going between Hydel in second position with 140 points and Vaz in front with 150 points. Hydel then rushed into the lead after 28 events with 179 points to Vaz’s 158 points.With only the relays left to decide the winner of the championships, Hydel sealed the championships by winning four of the relay races.Hydel made sure that nothing went wrong as they placed high up the order in the races they did not win, but sealed championships in style with runaway wins in both the girls’ and boys’ 4×200-metres relay open events.The girls won their 4x200m open ahead of Belair and Mona. Vaz did not qualify in this event. Hydel then won the boys’ 4x200m relay open ahead of Knox Junior School and Vaz.A number of records were broken over the three-day championships with Vaz Prep erasing the Class Three boys 4x100m relay record of 58.75 seconds set by Emmanuel Christian Academy last year with a new time of 58.72 seconds.Kerrica Hill from Hydel shattered the Class One girls’ 200- metre record of 26.12 seconds in her heats with a new time of 26.0 seconds. The old mark was set in 2014 by Hughsasia Fyffe of Quest Prep.Meanwhile, the Class One girls’ 100-metre final was won by Alexia Beckford of Blair in 13.23 seconds ahead of Jounee Armstrong of Vaz 13.32 seconds, and Jarvia Hinds of St Catherine Prep in 13.50 seconds.The Class One boys’ 100m final was won by Jayd’n Johnson of Sts Peter and Paul with 12.46 seconds ahead of Kyle Richards of Bright Beginnings Prep (12.76), and Jaheim LaBeach of Knox Junior School (12.86 seconds).Jaden Mohan of St Andrew Prep won the Class One boys’ 200 -etre final in 26.27 seconds ahead of Jayd’n Johnson of Sts Peter and Paul 26.40 and Dante Dacres of Hydel (26.57 seconds).Dante Dacres of Hydel captured the Class One boys’ 400-metre final in 57.12 seconds ahead of St John’s Prep 1:00.49 minutes, while the Class One girls’ 300m was won by Kerrica Hill of Hydel in 41.69 seconds ahead of Mikayla Gardener of Lannaman’s (42.61 seconds).The girls’ 600m relay open was won by Hydel in 1:26.28 minutes ahead of Mona (1:27.55) and Quest (1:27.91), while the boys’ 800m relay open was won by Hydel in 1:56.54 minutes ahead of Alvernia (1:58.04) and Vaz (1:58.26).Misha-Jade Samuels of Vaz won the Class One girls’ long jump with a distance of 1.50 metres, while the Class One boys’ long jump final was won by Zico Bennett of Hydel with 5.29 metres.Hydel captured the Class One girls’ 4x100m relay final in 51.93 seconds ahead of Belair (53.36) and Vaz with 53.45 seconds. Hydel had earlier broken the record in their heats in 51.44 seconds to erase their old mark of 51.55 set in 2014.The Class One boys’ 4x100m relay final was won by Hydel in a time of 50.58 seconds ahead of Sts Peter and Paul (51.22), and Emmanuel Christian Academy (52.07 seconds).