Grey, Samuels find spark on the Armory runway

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

There is a sense at The Armory that because the track is on the third floor of the century-old building that there is a certain give to the ground that might help the jumpers -- a little bit of extra bounce. 

It's actually not the case. The runways and everything else are plenty firm. But that didn't stop Rayvon Grey and Samiyah Samuels from unleashing historic marks in the long jump competitions on Saturday at New Balance Nationals Indoor. 

Grey soared to 26 feet, 1/2 inch to win the boys competition with the longest jump by a prep athlete indoors since 1989 and the third-longest of all-time. 

Hours later, Samuels jumped 21-3.25 to also move to No. 3 on the all-time list. It was the longest jump by a high school girl indoors since 1981.

"I watched him," Samuels said of Grey. "He has an amazing excitement about him but he controlled it. I tried to use some of that. There was some little spark on the runway today."

A couple more national records were broken on Saturday. First, New Yorker Lauren Harris broke the meet and national record in the 1-mile racewalk, completing the race in 6 minutes, 57.36 seconds. 

Later in the day, Brandon McGorty split 1:49 for his Chantilly 1,600 sprint medley relay team and the group ran 3:24.02 to better the performance of Brian Bell and Dunbar OH last year. 

Rush-Henrietta NY repeated its girls 1,600 SMR title, with Samantha Watson anchoring in 2:08 for a combined time of 3:55.48.

In a pair of epic shot put competitions, Nickolette Dunbar bounced back from a loss to Alyssa Wilson at Eastern States and won the national title with No. 4 all-time 54-7.50. Wilson, who is the No. 2 performer of all-time, threw 53-5.50 for second place. Elena Bruckner from California (50-8) and Sophia Rivera from Missouri (50-1.25) were third and fourth, respectively. 

Jordan Geist, who dominated the indoor season, capped it with his first national title. He threw 71-2.50 to break the meet record and withstood a challenge from Texan Adrian Piperi, who was second with 69-2. 

In the pole vault, sophomore Mondo Duplantis was poised to do something special -- like break his own national record -- but on three attempts in a row at 17-9 he was way over the bar only to brush it off with the slightest touch on the way down. 

Duplantis settled for the win with 17-1. 

In the 4xMile relays, the La Salle RI girls and Carl Sandburg IL boys were victorious. 

In the 4x800 relays Dublin OH won the boys race in 7:45.27 as the top three teams posted the three fastest times of the season. Mountain Brook AL was second in 7:45.58 and State College PA was third in 7:45.60.

In the girls race, Mamaroneck NY withstood a challenge from NY Section I rival North Rockland as the two teams went under nine minutes. Mamaroneck ran 8:58.46 and North Rockland went 8:59.63.