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Source: The Charlotte Observer - Sunday, April 17, 1994 Relays more than fun and games for participants By Langston Wertz Jr. - Staff Writer East Mecklenburg boys track coach Larry McAfee likes to say that the Queen City Relays are for fun. But sorry, coach, not much about the 38th annual event at Myers Park Saturday seemed like that. The kids, representing 24 high schools from all over Western North Carolina, ran like this was some kind of championship meet, even though no team scores were kept and there were no overall winners. "Look, this isn't for fun," North Mecklenburg girls coach Rick Jackson said. "I know some coaches send entry forms showing runners with faster times than they are capable of. This is done, Jackson said, in an effort to strike fear in the opposing coaches. "Those are just bogus times," Jackson said. "Once you get on the track, a lot of times, it's a different story." Jackson says the meet does provide a good opportunity to get a midseason look at the area's best competitors. "You want to establish some rapport here," he said, "because you'll see most of these kids again in the regionals (which qualifies runners and teams for the state championships in Chapel Hill). Coaches can analyze runners and see who has what. "You can see and run against the best in your conference. And you bring in the out-of-town teams to add some flavor. But really when you get down to it, this thing is about personal gratification." A big crowd cheered loudest for the sprint events, especially when a runner would run down the leader in an event with a quick surge. In trackspeak, this is called "walking someone down." And there was plenty of that Saturday. Some highlights: - In the boys 3,200-meter run, Watauga's Will Hodges edged Sun Valley's Ryan Adams. Hodges finished in nine minutes 40 seconds. dams in 9:40.1. - Myers Park's Reggie Land won the high jump (6-6), finished third in the long jump (21-4) and was second in the triple jump (43.5). - In the 400-meter relay, Garinger's girls won in 51.4 seconds, nipping Olympic (51.6). -And in the girls 100 meters, Harding's Dana Hope shot out of the starting blocks in a rush, leaving the rest of the field in her wake. She won easily in 11.9 seconds. Carmen Weldon of Salisbury was second in 12.3. But perhaps the highlight of the meet came in the girls 400-meter relay. North Mecklenburg's girls won a race that Jackson wasn't sure they'd win. Katrina White was running the third leg in place of Nayi Carr who was out of town. White is normally a 400-meter runner and this was a 100-meter leg she'd have to run. After Keisha Barnette and Marlena Karpeh had given her some room, White ran what coach Rick Jackson said was "a beautiful leg" and set up Kesha Wallace, who ran the final leg for the victorious Vikings. And as Wallace was coming down the track, closing in on the win, Jackson was screaming, "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" When she finished first, Jackson, who was in the stands, ran in place - vigorously - then pumped the air like a boxer with his fists. "I'm sweating now," he told a friend, "just like them." "I expected that if we could get our (handoffs) right, we'd do well," Jackson said later. "I'm just really happy for them." But this was just a "fun" meet, right coach? "Man, if they kept score out here," Jackson said, "the coaches would be at each other tooth and nail. This isn't for fun." |
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