MANY people expected Edwin Allen High to come out on top at the 2024 staging of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association/GraceKennedy Girls’ Athletics Championships, and while the Michael Dyke-coached team eventually won a 10th title, the race was still up in the air with three events left to be contested on Saturday at the National Stadium.

After Hydel High won their first title last year — beating Edwin Allen by two points in the final event of the championships — the St Catherine-based school appeared well set for another climatic victory with a final-day charge that few expected.

A gutsy third-place finish by Sushana Johnson in the Girls’ 3000m Open behind Hydel High’s Kaydeen Johnson’s impressive defence provided a spark. Sushana, who had been lagging at the back of the race for a long time, breathed life into Edwin Allen who later placed second in the 4x400m relay to win by just under 10 points.

Edwin Allen claimed 335.5 points while Hydel accumulated 326.

Dyke said afterwards that the finish was closer than they expected. He praised his team, and especially Sushana for her heroics that virtually rescued their title charge, saying it showed “character and determination”.

Hydel High’s mastermind Corey Bennett told the Jamaica Observer that the plan for Saturday had been to “win the day, pretend we were at 0-0, and just go out and do our best”.

That plan was came narrowly close to working as they outscored Edwin Allen High 185-151.5 on the day.

Hydel High went into the final day on 141 points, 43 behind Edwin Allen High’s 184. Both were comfortably ahead of the rest of the field, and of the 17 individual finals set to be contested, both had qualified for all six relays. But Edwin Allen had 23 athletes qualified for those finals, two more than Hydel High.

“Definitely, this was closer than we were expecting, you know. We were planning for a greater margin of victory but this is [the] championships and those things will happen,” Dyke, who said they had been targeting 340-350 points over the five days, noted.

“[We] dropped some points — especially in the field, in the jumps — but at the end of the day it’s points accumulation that wins Champs and we were able to do what was expected in order to win.”

He admitted that Sushana’s awareness and gutsy run late in the 3000m “was the decider”.

He added: “We told the girls: ‘Once you keep us alive within 11 to 12 points, then we will be good.’ ”

The Hydel camp was in a celebratory mood after their heroics, and Bennett said his plan had been “to take things event by event”.

Sushana Johnson of Edwin Allen reacts after the Girls’ 3000m Open during the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium on Saturday. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

Bennett, who additionally guided Calabar High to third place on the boys’ side, said: “We challenged the [Hydel High] team to let us try and win the last day, just pretend like the scores were 0-0. It was, ‘Hey, let’s go and try to win this last day on points and effort,’ and I thought the team dug deep.”

He said he was proud, despite mishaps along the way.

“We got some excellent performances, for sure, [but] we also had some disappointments, like in the 70m hurdles which we thought we should have won,” he said in reference to Arrian Nelson — the second fastest in the semis — who fell and was not able to complete the race.

“There are many areas that we thought we could have covered to really have covered the points but I’m just so proud of the girls for their effort,” he said

After losing a number of athletes from last year he noted that Hydel were not given a chance by many pundits.

“I mean, they wrote us off. People just thought we would have been blown out of the water but the girls rallied, and the team rallied, and the entire staff did very well to get the team going.”

Bennett said he refused to look too far ahead as the athletes chewed into Edwin Allen’s lead, only allowing himself to focus of one event at a time.

“The truth is that it was my son Zico always saying that we can win, and I just didn’t really buy into that or even look at the numbers. I’m not really a numbers person; I just wanted one event at a time and I just wanted to get the maximum out of every event — and I thought that if we did that, whatever we got to the end of the day, I would have taken it. But no, I didn’t look at the numbers at time,” he recalled.

The athletes did not have to look too far for inspiration either as a number of former Hydel stars were on hand to help lift their spirits. Bennett was happy for the extra boost.

“They added some motivation to the girls. I mean, when the girls see them in their new lives, in terms of professional lives or college lives, it serves as motivation to them to want to aspire to do that.

“I mean these girls, you know [Brianna] Lyston is here, Alana Reid is here, Shiann Salmon is here, Ashante Moore, Monifah Green — quite a few of our all-time stars were here. It was just a pleasure to see them come back and pay homage to the present girls and give some some kind of encouragement to them,” the Hydel coach said.