Weekend Update

The Memorial Day weekend is typically quiet on the elite scene, and was an off weekend for Division I colleges as they rested between Conference meets and Regionals, but there was a lot of action in the lower collegiate divisions, low level open meets and high schools.

The hottest action, however was at the National Junior College Championships, as the young sprinters made their case for why they should be running for upper level schools. Rend Lake's Ryan Bailey set a new JCR of 10.05 in the 100 meters in the heats before winning the final in 10.07. He also ran 20.45 in his semi before returning to run 20.47 in the final of the 200. Unfortunately he was upstaged in the deuce by the 20.34 of Barton's Alonzo Edwards - which was also a Panamanian record. Not to be outdone the quarter milers went nuts with Latoy Williams (South Plains, and the Bahamas) eeking out a 44.73 win over Tabarie Henry's (Barton, and the Virgin Islands) 44.77. Only Lashawn Merritt and Jeremy Wariner have run faster this year.

Even though there were no "major" meets there were a slew of world leading efforts.

Daniel Bailey - 9.99 - ANT
Jacob Cheshari - 13:05.62 - KEN
Joseph Muchiri - 26:57.36 - KEN
Isa Phillips - 48.36 - JAM
Dan Taylor - 71' 5.5" (21.78m) - US
Nelson Evora - 57' 11.25" (17.66m) - POR

Laverne Jones Ferrette - 22.49 - Virgin Islands
Iryna Lishchynska - 4:06.22 - UKR
Stephanie Brown Trafton - 217; 2" (66.21m) - US
Christina Obergfoll - 224' 5" (68.40m) - GER
Brittany Reese - 23' 2" (7.06m) - US
Yargelis Savigne - 48' 4" (14.73m) - CUB

And in high school action, California's best began to gear up for State Meet action with some awesome Divisional/Section Prelim performances. Among the best:

Reggie Wyatt - 46.45/35.74/21.21w
Anna Jelmini - 51' 9.5"/182' 8"
Randall Carroll - 10.39/20.93w
Jordan Hasay - 2:09.64/10:30.04

This upcoming weekend should get even hotter with Collegiate Division I Regionals and the New York Reebok meet coming up.