The summer track season just completed its second weekend and Kansas high school track & field has represented itself well on the national scene.
Alli Cash (SM West) made a splash in her first “big time” appearance on the national prep stage in last Saturday’s adidas Diamond Grand Prix Dream Mile held on Randall’s Island, New York. Not being from California, New York, or Texas, Alli probably entered the meet as least known on the national prep scene. But all she proceeded to do was to finish third in a time of 4:39.98 [#1 A-T KS HS 1-mile] which bettered the All-Time Kansas best for the 1-mile distance of 4:44.09, which was set back in 1999 by Amy Mortimer (Riley County), by 4.11 seconds. The time moved Cash up into the #4 spot on the 2012 US high school 1-mile list and into #12 on the All-Time National high school list for the 1-mile distance.
Click here for the all-time best performances in Kansas history
Alli found herself in the middle of the pack for the first 400+ meters of the race which included 14 of the top 15 high school distance runners in the country for 2012. She worked her way up through the pack into fifth with 800 meters remaining, and then into fourth with 600 meters left. As the field entered the bell lap, Alli moved to the front and into the lead with 300 meters to go, but was overtaken by defending Dream Mile champion Cami Chapus from California and dropped back into second with a half-lap to go. Still within two meters of Chapus as they turned into the home stretch of the Icahn Stadium track, Alli was unable to match Chapus’ final sprint, then was nipped at the tape for the runner-up spot by Angel Piccirillo of Pennsylvania (4:39.94) by 0.04 second. Chapus’ winning time of 4:39.64 was the second fastest prep 1-mile in the US for 2012 and ranks #8 on the All-Time National high school list. The race was the also first in high school girls’ track & field history in which three girls have run faster than 4:40 in the same race.
The video replay of the race can be found at http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/248265-2012-adidas-Dream-100Dream-Mile/video/640688-2012-adidas-Girls-Dream-Mile
Click here for the best performances of 2012
The conversion of Cash’s 4:39.98 mile, using a standard -1.7 second difference for girls between the 1600-meter and 1-mile, would be 4:38.28 for the metric distance. That will be the time listed as the state’s all-time 1600-meter best unless more precise official timing is found.
We are attempting to track down whether official 1500-meter times were taken for the race. It appears in the video of the race that there was a camera positioned at the 1500-meter mark which could have been used for FAT timing. [NOTE: I hand-timed of the video replay of the race and came up with a very unofficial, hand-timed mark of 4:22.2 at the approximated 1500-meter mark. That time would better Mortimer’s current all-time state 1500m best of 4:26.5 from 1999. Using the same video replay timing method gave an unofficial, hand-timed mark of 4:38.5 at the 1600m mark which would have been the waterfall start line visible in the video 9.35 meters from the finish. Adding a 0.24 seconds for hand-timing would give FAT approximations of 4:22.44 for 1500m and 4:38.74 for 1600m.]
Cash is scheduled to run the 1500 meters this coming weekend at the USA National Junior track and field championships in Bloomington, Indiana. This meet will bring together the best of the USA’s high school standouts and the most promising college freshmen where they will face off in the qualifying meet for places on the USA National Junior team for this year’s IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain, from July 10th to July 15th. The first round of the National Junior 1500m for women is scheduled to be run Friday evening, June 15, at the Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex on the campus of University with the 1500m finals scheduled for Sunday afternoon, June 17. Grace Pickell (SM East, high jump), Nick Meyer (Bishop Carroll, pole vault), Emily Brigham (Mill Valley, pole vault), and Alexa Harmon-Thomas (Free State-Lawrence, heptathlon) are also entered and qualified to participate.
At the Great Southwest Classic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the final weekend in May, a small contingent of Sunflower athletes put up a nice set of marks including all-time top 10 marks by Emily Brigham (Mill Valley) in the long jump [#2 A-T, 20-04.25w] and DayShawn Berndt (Free State) in the 400 meters [#6 A-T, 47.59]. (More complete results are listed below.) Brigham now trails only former American record holder in the 400 hurdles and Olympian Sandra Myers (Little River ’79) by 2 1/4” for the state’s all-time best and Berndt knocked Sonnie Lee (West Elk ’09) and Miles Ukaoma (Maize ’10) out of the state’s all-time top 10 400 meters list.
Bringing home gold from Albuquerque were Brigham in the pole vault and Katie Kehl (Baldwin) in the shot put although both were off their season best marks.
The two boys’ relays which were made up of athletes from several schools ran times that while they don’t qualify for the annual or all-time state high school lists, it was interesting to see where their times would rank on the 2012 list.
Great Southwest Classic (May 31-June 2, 2012), Albuquerque, NM
B 100 5. Osvaldo Granillo (Moscow) 10.94 (-0.3 m/s wind)
B 400 4. DayShawn Berndt (Free State) 47.59 [#1 KS 2012 / #6 All-Time KS HS]
8. Osvaldo Granillo (Moscow) 48.38 [#3 KS 2012]
10. Rhys Powell (Collegiate) 48.90 [#6 KS 2012]
B 110 H 8. Jonathan Duvall (Garden City) 15.36 (-2.7 m/s)
B 4x100 8. Kansas (DayShawn Berndt, Adebayo Braiman (Liberal), Mark Davis (Campus), Jonathan DuVall) 42.32 [mixed, #4 KS 2012]
B 4x400 2. Kansas (DayShawn Berndt, Mark Davis, Osvaldo Granillo, Rhys Powell) 3:18.22 [mixed, #1 KS 2012]
B SP 6. Deyton Valentine (Baldwin) 54’10.75”
B DT 9. Deyton Valentine (Baldwin) 154’04”
G 300H 6. Mackenzie Klaver (Norwich) 44.40 [#1 KS 2012]
G 2k Stpl 8. Claire Sanner (8th Gr @ Lawrence MS) 8:20.31 [#6 KS 2012]
G HJ 2. Grace Pickell (SM East) 5’10”
G PV 1. Emily Brigham (Mill Valley) 12’05.5”
G LJ 3. Emily Brigham (Mill Valley) 20’04.25”w (+3.9 m/s) [#1 KS 2012 / #2 A-T KS HS]
G SP 4. Katie Kehl (Baldwin) 42’04”
G DT 1. Katie Kehl (Baldwin) 142’09”
G Heptathlon 3. Alexa Harmon-Thomas (Free State) 4688
100H 14.42 (-0.1 m/s) [#1 KS 2012]
200 25.56 (+0.7 m/s) [#9 KS 2012]
LJ 18-05.25 (+1.7 m/s) [#4 KS 2012]
