Shorham-Wading River makes up for XC snub 

By Brian Towey for DyeStat

Shoreham-Wading River (N.Y.) is a Long Island program that prides itself on distance running. Yet even into the heart of indoor season, the team's omission from Nike Cross Nationals still stings, after finishing third at the New York regional.

"I went there as an individual, and it just wasn't the same experience (as running as a team)," junior Katherine Lee said. "Because we felt like we had earned a bid."

On the track, if there is one event suited to this group, it's the 4xMile relay.

"We're milers that come down to run the 4x800," senior Alexandra Hays said.

SWR had a chance at redemption Saturday, with one major caveat: They would have to run without Lee, their 4:50 performer, who is out until the spring following a serious ankle injury suffered in the 110th NYRR Millrose Games High School Girls Mile.

Her teammates pulled up Maria Smith, a senior basketball player, and used Hays' workmanlike 5:00.41 anchor leg to pull out a 20:33.12 win and national title Saturday at The Armory.

"Can you believe it?" said Hays afterward, capturing the team's unbridled joy and disbelief.

"A national championship!"

Senior Payton Capes-Davis handed off in seventh with a 5:15 lead leg. Amanda Dwyer, another senior, picked up ground with her 5:06.74 second leg. Then came the senior Smith, who typically plays guard and forward on the SWR basketball team during the winter.

"She had a great cross country season, so we decided to bring her up," Capes-Davis said.

Smith's hard-fought 5:10 on the third leg put SWR in the fifth spot. Hays took care of the rest.

"This was very much a redemption thing today (after cross country season)," Capes-Davis said.

Griffiths qualfied for CARIFTA Games

Ronaldo Griffiths, a four-year standout as a hurdler at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, notched a major breakthrough last weekend at the CARIFTA Games trials in Jamaica. Griffiths, an accomplished long hurdler, ran 51.92 in a qualifying round.

"I was just trying to make it back to the finals," Griffiths said. "I almost fell down 15 meters from the finish. When my mom told me that that official time was 51, I said, 'That's impossible' because I slowed down."

Griffiths ran 52.1 in the finals for second place, earning him a spot representing Jamaica in the CARFITA Games finals April 15-17 in Curacao.

Griffths ran in the championship 400 at New Balance Nationals Indoor, running 49.64 to finish third Saturday in his qualifying heat (he did not qualify for the final).

Griffiths burst onto the scene as a freshman in the 400-meter hurdles when he ran 52.60. Now a senior, he's sorting through his college options.

"I started taking my visits last week," said Griffiths. "I need to get my list of schools down to five."

Among the schools recruiting Griffiths are Mississippi State, Ohio State, Tennessee, Louisiana Tech and Purdue.

Wigfall leads revival at East Orange

Leading up to New Balance Nationals Indoor's final day at The Armory, it'd been a bittersweet showing for East Orange (N.J.). The emerging New Jersey power had its boys 4x200 team disqualified, with ace hurdler Cory Poole also DQ'd from the 60-meter hurdles.

However, a national-record effort in the boys shuttle hurdle relay suggested that despite the setbacks, the school was ready for big things.

"If we have a perfect day, something is wrong," said fourth-year boys coach Lance Wigfall, a 2003 East Orange graduate. "But (no matter what happens), you have to see things through."

East Orange showed its resilience in the boys 4x400 final. Poole staked the Jaguars to a big lead with a 47.83 leadoff leg. And from there, Akeem Lindo, Kishaun Richardson and Immyouri Etienne rolled to a 3:16.09 win.

"It's been a remarkable year," Wigfall said. "But we've still got room to grow. Not to say that the competition wasn't pushing (us). It's something to see on a platform like the New Balance Nationals to have a lead like that."

All four legs dipped under 50 seconds as East Orange won the event by more than two seconds (New Jersey's Egg Harbor finished second in 3:18.45).

For Wigfall, a former state record-holder in the 400 as an East Orange runner (he ran collegiately for Lincoln University in Pennsylvania), the performance had special significance.

"Last year we didn't finish the 4x400," he said.

Wigfall took over the boys program four years ago determined to restore East Orange to its past glory days.

"In the past, there was tradition," he said. "In the 2000s, the girls had a great program. And the boys, they weren't up to (snuff).

"I graduated from East Orange High School. When you go back to the school and you see your uniform on the wall, the expectation is that there are no days off."

Backed by Wigfall, the program is back.

"We've definitely brought it back," said the Florida-bound Poole, a 7.13 performer in the 55-meter hurdles.

"But we've brought it back better than ever. And we're only getting better."

Newland injured in 4x200

South Shore (N.Y.) senior Ramone Newland pulled up with an injury in the 4x200 after leading the Brooklyn-based school to a fifth-place finish in 1:30.16. Newland, a Jamaica native with 6.33 sprint credentials in the 55, was carried to the trainer's room with what appeared to be a hamstring pull. He withdrew from the 200 final, after qualifying with a 21.59 mark in the trials.

Hazzard rallies to 2nd in 60

St. Anthony's (N.Y.) senior Halle Hazzard used a familiar formula in her runner-up finish in the girls 60-meter dash in 7.36, With her late-breaking explosiveness, she edged Pennsylvania's Thelma Davies (7.37) for second.

"I just pushed my nerves down and believed in myself," Hazzard said.

The New York state champion at 55 and 300 meters, Hazzard said her work in the longer sprints helped her improve on a fifth-place finish at New Balance Nationals Indoor last year.

"I started my (indoor) season a little later, in January," said Hazzard. "I did more longer distance, more 300s (than 55s)."

Hazzard will run for the University of Virginia next year.