US men, women take 400, 1,600 races at Penn Relays

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - April 25, 2009 American sprinters won four of six races billed as "The US vs. The World" at the Penn Relays on Saturday, beating rival Jamaica to win both the men's and women's 400- and 1,600-meter relays.

In the women's 1,600, the U.S. team of Monica Hargrove, Natasha Hastings, Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards won in 3 minutes, 23.08 seconds after Hastings lost her left shoe during the exchange with Hargrove and ran the entire leg with a bare foot.

"I will say when it did come off, I thought about stopping," Hastings said. "Then I thought about everyone else and I thought it's just not about me. So knowing who I was running with and being in this arena, I couldn't stop. I had to go."

The U.S. team of Kerron Clement, Angelo Taylor, David Neville and LaShawn Merritt won the men's 1,600 in 2:59.78.

Several hour earlier, the memory of dropped batons at the Beijing Olympics fueled the American 400 teams.

Shawn Crawford, Walter Dix, Travis Padgett and Darvis Patton took the men's race in 37.92 ahead of another American team with Jamaica finishing ninth after anchor Asafa Powell pulled up at the end of the race.

Powell was doing fine before the race and wanted to see how his left leg would hold up, Powell's agent, Paul Doyle, said in a statement. The Jamaican star hadn't competed in over a month.

Crawford was not involved in the men's race in Beijing where Tyson Gay and Patton failed to make a clean exchange, but was still glad to help the U.S. gain a measure of redemption.

"The thing was just developing chemistry among the four of us," he said. "I'm not saying it's a revenge thing, but it's nice a defend and win on your home turf."

The women quickly followed suit with Lauryn Williams, Allyson Felix, Mechelle Lewis and Carmelita Jeter winning in 42.40 ahead of runner-up Jamaica, a victory that also helped ease memories of a botched baton exchange in Beijing.

"It's a great season starter for both the men and the women's teams," Jeter said. "It's good for both of the teams, the men and the women, to be excited about this year. To forget about '08 and go into '09 with aggression, with confidence and ready to run, and this is going to be a great year for the USA team and we're hungry right now."

Jamaica did draw first blood, setting a record in the rarely contested sprint medley in the second of the USA vs. the World races.

Sheri-Ann Brooks, Rosemarie Whyte, Moya Thompson and Kenia Sinclair finished in 3:34.56 to ignite a huge crowd of supporters. They cut nearly 3 seconds off the previous mark of 3:37.16 set by USA Blue at the 2006 Penn Relays.

The event - a pair of 200 legs with a 400 and an 800 - is rarely held, mainly in showcase events like the Penn Relays and is not officially recognized by the International Amateur Athletics Federation.

"We didn't even know the team we were going to run," said Sinclair, who ran the final leg in a blistering 1:57.43 despite it being her first 800 of the season. "I think this was our best chance of winning a relay today against the USA. We just wanted to start it off good for the rest of the team."

Earlier, Tennessee set an American record in the 3,200 to complete a rare relay triple.

The team of Kimarrra McDonald, Chanelle Price, Sarah Bowman and Phoebe Wright finished in 8:17.91 to beat Maryland Eastern Shore and break the mark of 8:18.78 set by Michigan at the 2007 Penn Relays.

Tennessee is just the third program and sixth women's team to take the distance medley and the 6,000- and 3,200-meter events in the 115-year history of the meet. North Carolina's women were the last to do it, in 2003.

"Our focus wasn't on the record," said Bowman, who anchored the two previous wins this weekend. "It was again about competing. If you get too caught up in times it messes you up. We we're like just go out there and compete hard."

RESULTS

All race distances in meters

Men

Olympic Development 10k Racewalk

1, Richard Luettchau, 46 minutes, 24.50 seconds. 2, Theron Kissinger, 49:53.12.

Olympic Development 400 Hurdles

1, Ian Weakly, 50.83. 2, Marqueth Tard, 51.77. 3, Shomari Taylor, 53.86. 4, Wayne Kee, 54.69. 5, Asuerus Thompson, 55.00. 6, Quentin James, 55.91.

College 4-Mile Championship of America

1, Arkansas 16:16.11. 2, Virginia 16:22.49. 3, Providence 16:22.95. 4, Cornell 16:25.17. 5, Villanova 16:25.19. 6, Duke 16:32.40.

College 400 Relay Championship of America

1, Texas A&M, 38.79 (Tran Howell, Gerald Phiri, Chris Dykes, Justin Oliver). 2, Florida State, 38.82. 3, LSU, 38.89. 4, Clemson, 39.33. 5, Hampton, 40.08. 6, UTech, 48.87.

USA vs. the World Distance Medley

1, Kenya 9:22.04 (Frederick Musyoki Ndunge, Thomas Musembi, Jackson Kivuna, Josephat Kithii). 2, Canada 9:22.05. 3, USA White 9:23.65. 4, USA Blue 9:24.43. 5, Australia 9:36.64. 6 France 9:50.66.

College 800 Relay Championship of America

1, Texas A&M 1:20.32 (Brian Miller, Gerald Phiri, Chris Dykes, Justin Oliver). 2, Florida, 1:21.52. 3, South Carolina, 1:21.60. 4, St. Augustine's, 1:22.35. 5, Mississippi State, 1:22.43. 6, Kentucky, 1:22.81.

College 110 Hurdles Championship

1, Jason Richardson, South Carolina, 13.56. 2, Ronnie Ash, Bethune-Cookman, 13.58. 3, Omo Osaghae, Texas Tech, 13.93. 4, Barrett Nugent, LSU, 14.11. 5, De'Lon Isom, Texas A&M 14.13. 6, Johnny Dutch, South Carolina 14.16.

Olympic Development 110 Hurdles

1, Jacoby DuBose, 13.63. 2, Eric Keddo, 13.70. 3, Ryan Fontenot, 13.73. 4, Selim Nurudeen, Nigeria, 13.85. 5, Dominic Berger, 14.01. 6, Lorne Champbell, 14.07.

Olympic Development 100

1, Phillippe DeRosier, 10.23. 2, Lerone Clarke, 10.43. 3, Chris Hargrett, 10.44. 4, Demitrius McCloud, 10.51. 5, Junior Burnett, 10.64. 6, Rondrick Parker, 10.71.

College 100 Championship

1, Trindon Holliday, LSU, 10.16. 2, Terrell Wilks, Florida 10.39. 3, Jonathan Hancock, South Carolina, 10.44. 4, Gabriel Mvumvure, LSU 10.51. 5, Adam Harris, Michigan 10.52. 6, Maurice Mitchell, Florida State, 10.57.

USA vs. the World 400 Relay

1, USA Blue, 37.92 (Walter Dix, Travis Padgett, Shawn Crawford, Darvis Patton). 2, USA Red, 38.36. 3, Trinidad & Tobago, 38.37. 4, Canada Red, 38.85. 5, Canada Black, 39.26. 6, Bahamas, 39.79. Olympic Development Mile Run

1, Matt DeBole, 4:00.69. 2, Andrew Bumbalough, 4:01.43. 3, Stephen Furst, 4:01.95. 4, Nick Stenuf, 4:04.50. 5, Jonathan Blackledge, 4:05.94. 6, Sandy Roberts, 4:06.61.

College 3,200 Relay Championship of America

1, Texas, 7:16.33 (Tevas Everett, Kyle Miller, Tevan Everett, Jacob Hernandez). 2, Georgetown, 7:16.88. 3, Arkansas, 7:18.16. 4, Penn State, 7:18.66. 5, Columbia, 7:21.27. 6, Coppin State, 7:21.78.

College 1,600 Relay Championship of America

1, Florida State, 3:01.54 (Kevin Williams, Kevin Borlee, Brandon O'Connor, Jonathan Borlee). 2, St. Augustine's, 3:02.10. 3, Texas A&M, 3:03.56. 4, South Carolina, 3:03.89. 5, TCU, 3:04.87. 6, LSU, 3:06.04.

USA vs. the World 1,600 Relay

1, USA Red, 2:59.78 (Kerron Clement, Angelo Taylor, David Neville, LaShawn Merritt). 2, Bahamas, 3:00. 3, USA Blue, 3:00.58. 4, Jamaica, 3:02.21. 5, Dominican Republic, 3:02.32. 6, Trinidad & Tobago, 3:03.57.

College Hammer Throw Championship

1, Walter Henning, LSU, 225 feet, 6 inches. 2, Seid Mujanovic, Manhattan, 210-11. 3, Ben Harpenau, Purdue, 207-3. 4, Alex Pessala, Princeton, 203-9. 5, Mike Zajac, South Carolina, 200-4. 6, Michael Lauro, LSU, 198-3.

College Javelin Throw Championship

1, Tanner Evak, Penn State, 225-6. 2, Mario Ariet, Florida, 219-10. 3, Doug Nelson, Florida, 214-2. 4, Brandon Heroux, William & Mary, 212-7. 5, Mark DeBlanc, LSU 208-3. 6, Andy Fahringer, Virginia 204-0.

College High Jump Championship

1, Joseph Kindred, St. Augustine's, 7-5. 2, Dwight Barbiasz, Maryland, 7-2.25. 3, Jerome Miller, Georgia Tech, 7-1. 4, Ryan Fleck, Auburn, 7-1. 5, Garrett Huyler, Cornell, 7-1. 6, Ivan Diggs, Houston, 6-11.5.

College Pole Vault Championship

1, Joe Berry, Tennessee, 17-4.5. 2, Maston Wallace, Texas, 17-4.5. 3, Luke Schoen, Albany, 17-4.5. 4, Parker Smith, North Carolina, 17-0.75. 5, Elliott Haynie, South Carolina, 17-0.75. 6, David Foley, Sherbrooke, 17-0.75. 6, Josh Dominguez, LSU, 17-0.75. College Triple Jump Championship

1, Tyron Stewart, Texas A&M, 53-9. 2, Christian Taylor, Florida, 53-5. 3, Zuheir Sharif, Texas A&M, 53-4.5. 4, Chris Carter, Houston, 53-3. 5, Austin Davis, North Carolina, 52-11.5. 6, Nkosinza Balumbu, Arkansas, 52-7.25.

Olympic Development Hammer Throw

1, Jacob Freeman, 235-8. 2, Jesse Doty, 228-4. 3, Nick Welihozkiy, 221-1.

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Women

Olympic Development 5K Racewalk

1, Joanne Dow, 23:17.33. 2, Lauren Forgeus, 25:34.55. 3, Erin Taylor, 25:41.29.

College 3,200 Relay Championship of America

1, Tennessee, 8:17.91 (Kimarra McDonald, Chanelle Price, Sarah Bowman, Phoebe Wright). 2, UMES, 8:37.56. 3, Georgetown, 8:40.81. 4, William & Mary, 8:53.97. 5, Columbia, 8:54.05. 6, Yale, 8:56.42. College 800 Relay Championship of America

1, Texas A&M, 1:30.28 (Jessica Beard, Gabby Mayo, Dominique Duncan, Porscha Lucas). 2, Auburn, 1:31.19. 3, LSU, 1:32.03. 4, Oklahoma, 1:33.40. 5, Houston, 1:33.50. 6, South Carolina, 1:35.55. USA vs. the World Sprint Medley

1, Jamaica, 3:34.56 (Sheri-Ann Brooks, Rosemarie Whyte, Moya Thompson, Kenia Sinclair), 2, Russia 3:37.37. 3, USA Blue 3:38.36. 4, USA White 3:39.07. 5, Great Britain 3:40.38. 6, World All-Stars 3:41.04.

College 100 Hurdles Championship

1, Seun Adigun, Houston, 12.98. 2, Shermaine Williams, Johnson C. Smith, 13.06. 3, Tavia Burke, Bethune-Cookman, 13.29. 4, Natasha Ruddock, Essex CC (NJ), 13.39. 5, Marrissa Harris, Mississippi State, 13.39. 6, Tenaya Jones, LSU, 13.48.

Olympic Development 100 Hurdles

1, Nickiesha Wilson, 12.95. 2, Joseanne Lucas, 13.06. 3, Lauren Smith, 13.10. 4, Shantia Moss, 13.18. 5, Toyin Augustus, 13.21. 6, Jessica Ohanaja, 13.41.

College 100 Championship

1, Samantha Henry, LSU, 11.22. 2, Shillionie Calvert, G.C. Foster, 11.27. 3, Kya Brookins, South Carolina, 11.32. 4, Scottesha Miller, Oklahoma, 11.44. 5, Jessica Young, TCU, 11.46. 6, Barbara Pierre, St. Augustine's, 11.47. USA vs. the World 400 Relay 1, USA Red, 42.40 (Lauryn Williams, Allyson Felix, Mechelle Lewis, Carmelita Jeter). 2, Jamaica, 42.77. 3, Bahamas, 43.64. 4, USA Blue, 43.74. 5, Nigeria, 44.44. 6, St. Kitts and Nevis, 44.52. Olympic Development Mile Run 1, Geena Gall, 4:43.34. 2, Maureen McCandless, 4:43.51. 3, Amanda LoPiccolo, 4:44.19. 4, Elizabeth Maloy, 4:44.83. 5, Susan Hendrick, 4:45.43. 6, Michelle Sikes, 4:45.59.

College 1,600 Relay Championship of America

1, UTech, 3:30.61 (Christine Day, Anneisha McLaughlin, Stephanie McPherson, Kaliese Spencer). 2, TCU, 3:33.63. 3, LSU, 3:33.96. 4, Florida State, 3:34.00. 5, Texas A&M, 3:35.57. 6, Miami (Fla), 3:38.40.

USA vs. the World 1,600 Relay

1, USA Red, 3:23.08 (Monica Hargrove, Natasha Hastings, Allyson Felix, Sanya Richards). 2, Jamaica, 3:24.57. 3, USA Blue, 3:26.50. 4, World All-Stars, 3:27.42. 5, Bahamas, 3:29.53. 6, Canada, 3:30.85.

Olympic Development Hammer Throw

1, Sultana Frizell, 225-0. 2, Jennifer Joyce, 224-3. 3, Kristal Yush, 215-2. 4, Crystal Smith, 205-6.

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