J’can high schools dominate East Coast International Showcase
JAMAICAN high school athletes dominated their American counterparts at Saturday’s inaugural East Coast International Showcase, powered by Puma, at Prince George Sports & Learning Complex in Landover, Maryland, USA.
Despite poor weather of cold and wet conditions affecting the proceedings the Jamaicans outclassed their American counterparts, amassing over a dozen wins.
The meet was called off prematurely by organisers after it was running almost three hours behind, but that did not prevent good wins from the Hydel High trio of Brianna Lyston, Oneika McAnuff and Oneka Wilson and Edwin Allen High’s ISSA Champs gold medallist Brian Levell.
Lyston and Levell took the girls’ and boys’ 100m, respectively, while McAnuff and Kingston College’s Amal Glasgow were the 400m champions.
Lyston ran 11.53 seconds to take the girls’ 100m ahead of her teammate Karrica Hill (11.64 seconds), with Laila Campbell of Spring Grove High third in 11.80 seconds.
Levell, the ISSA Champs Class One champion, ran 10.66 seconds (0.7m/s) to win the boys’ 100m ahead of Jordan Anthony (10.81 seconds) of Tyler Town High. Davonte Howell of IMG Academy was third with 10.92 seconds and St Jago High’s Raheem Pinnock was fourth in 11.00 seconds.
McAnuff clocked 54.24 seconds to win the girls’ 400m, beating Madison Whyte of Heritage High (54.71) and Arianna Sharpe of Clayton HS 55.60 seconds.
It was a sweep of the medals in the boys’ 400m where Glasgow won with 47.53 seconds — ahead of Edwin Allen’s Delano Kenedy (47.56 seconds) and Kingston College’s Emmanuel Rwotomiya (48.16 seconds) — while another Kingston College runner, Marchino Rose, placed fifth with 49.62 seconds.
Jamaicans also won both sprint hurdles events, with Hydel’s Oneka Wilson winning the girls’ 100m in 14.13 seconds (-1.2m/s) while beating two athletes from the Bullis School — Kennedy Flynn (14.63 seconds) and Gabby White (14.94 seconds).
St Jago High’s Jahvel Granville took the 110m hurdles top spot, running 13.88 seconds (0.7m/s), followed by Excelsior High’s Sharvis Simmonds (13.98 seconds) and Shamer Blake of STETHS (14.37 seconds).
Blake returned later to win the 400m hurdles in a decent 53.97 seconds, beating Excelsior High’s Jahmani Smith (54.59 seconds) and Javaughn Pinnock of St Jago (54.60 seconds).
St Jago High’s Alesia Douglas won the girls’ 800m in 2:27.65 seconds, beating her teammate Treshelle Simpson who ran 2:36.22 seconds while Zoe Brooks of the Bullis School was third with 2:44.37 seconds.
St Jago won both sprint relays, taking the girls’ race in 48.82 seconds ahead of IMG Academy (50.06 second)s, while STETHS took third with 50.08 seconds.
They ran 42.55 seconds to win the boys’ race, beating Cardinal Hayes High (43.32 seconds), with Sandy Spring Friends School third in 51.02 seconds while STETHS failed to finish.
In the field, St Jago High’s Annishka McDonald won the girls’ high jump with 1.63m while two STETHS athletes took second and fourth, respectively — Richelle Stanley took the silver with 1.52m and Kimberlee Bernard cleared 1.42m.
St Jago High took first and second in the boys’ shot put as Brandon Gayle won with 18.11m while Shaiquan Dunn was second with 16.02m.
Demario Prince of St Jago won the long jump with 6.80m, Allem Pinto of STETHS was second with 6.16m, and Malcolm Gray of Riverdale Baptist School was third with 6.13m.
— Paul Reid