Far East High School Track and Field Meet, sprint events preview
Published: May 17, 2012
100-meter dash
So far, Yokota’s Preston Brooks, Kubasaki’s Jarrett Mitchell, Tyrend White of Seoul American, Ronald Dogan and Stanley Speed of Yokota are the only entries in the 100. Speed faded in the Kanto Invitational finals, not even reaching his earlier best mark. This Far East event will reveal whether Mitchell`s wind aided electronic time can beat White's hand time – on paper, they are separated by one hundredth of a second. Far East will not apparently tell us who is best in the Pacific, with Rahman Cairnes of Okinawa Christian International not yet registered for the meet. The race is Brooks' barring something unforeseen.
Five girls are entered , with .82 seconds separating each of the top five seeds: Seoul American’s Kelsey Scott (12.44), Kadena’s Janika Caines, Tiesha Jones, Osan’s Davette Campbell and Kadena’s Kiana Caines (13:26). Kelsey, Tiesha and Davette are running their best now. Janika peaked in mid April, and Kiana’s recent trend profile is hard to determine from the variety of formats used to submit her marks. Tiesha and Davette’s momentum could help them overtake Janika.
200-meter dash
Six boys and six girls are currently entered in the 200. Brooks looks to take a gold in this event too, with a cushion of 0.24 seconds over Mitchell and 0.64 over Kadena’s Keith Smith and 0.74 over White. Smith will have to hope that his fresh legs can overtake the tired legs of the trio of Brooks, Mitchell and White, who will likely repeat their 100 order of finish earlier Thursday.
In the girls race, add Liz Thornton of American School In Japan to the 100 list above, and everyone will have to move down a slot. Maybe two. She could run it twice, taking first and second. Her lead over Janika Caines is 0.72. In this event, Janika's best mark was last Saturday, with the wind at her back and Liz in front. Sister Kiana's best time was back in March, recent efforts being 1.5 seconds slower.
400-meter dash
There are six entries in both races. Derrick Taylor and Keith Smith are the leading registrants despite being third and fifth in the qualifying lists. Taylor has followed the slow but sure path of improving his mark over the season, to 52.14. Smith took the leaping path, dropping 2.5 seconds in the May 5 Okinawa Activities Council district meet. Sam Olson of ASIJ has only run twice, in late season, his wind-hindered Kanto Invite mark being 0.32 seconds slower than his Kanto League second place finish. Donovan Ball is just .01 back, but he set his mark in March and has been a no-show since with a pulled hamstring. Justin Clemenson of Kubasaki has a similar tale, but teammate Dequan Alderman (13th on the qualifying list) made a nearly two-second improvement on May 5 to gain entry into the meet; apparently there were some scratches among the top 10 to open up a slot for him. The six registered runners are 1.9 seconds apart.
Jenna Doyno of ASIJ can do in the 400 what her teammate Thornton could do in the 200 – run twice (just hyperbole, folks). Doyno holds a 1.86 second lead over second place Chinyere Turner of Kadena and 3.26 seconds over Pamela Henderson of Seoul American. Electa Miller of Seoul American, Zama American’s Tyren Ward and Osan American’s Mikaila Kopcho come next, with significant gaps. Miller, Ward and Kopcho have not posted fast times since mid April, so they are unlikely to be surprise challengers. The front 3 have raced well recently.
100 hurdles
The present field of eight boys and seven girls looks especially close on the girls side. Only 1 second separates the leading Chinyere Turner (17.41) from sixth-place Micaela Sherman of Kubasaki (18.41). Danielle Balfour of Kubasaki could not take advantage of the Kanto wind to improve her mark from April 27 and Pashence Turner of Kadena and Sherman were at their best six weeks ago. In other words, recent trends have Turner and third seeded Lena Kim moving ahead and away from the others.
110 hurdles
So far, we have eight entrants, three seconds apart on this short race. Fred Gustafsson of Yoiota, Derrick Taylor, Charlie Seno of ASIJ, Yokota’s Jarred Morgan and Ghi Chong Lew of St. Mary’s are all running at their best right now, 1.51 apart and in that order. A hurdle mis-cue would be necessary to change their order of finish.
300 hurdles
The largest field of the meet.. Twelve are already registered, due to an overly generous qualification standard. This group is separated by five seconds. Derrick Taylor blasted 2.3 seconds off his best mark on April 27, but his other four efforts were slower than all three times Gustafsson ran the event. Taylor chose not to face Gustafsson at the Kanto Invitational. Gustafsson's experience will likely pull this one out. Sam Johnson of CAJ rarely gets to run this event, usually running the 400 hurdles instead; he is alone in third. Behind him is Dennis Dzurikanin of Zama, whose second racing effort was a massive 3.7 second improvement at the Zama meet. He has not run the 300 or 400 meter hurdles since. Next is Columbus Wilson of Kubasaki, who followed a season-long slow progression of improvement. Of the two, the edge goes to Wilson's patience, but neither Wilson nor Dzurikanin opted to run the event at the Kanto Invitational. Charlie Seno has only run the event once, usually only running the 110m hurdles; call him the dark horse, with a great chance to finish fourth. The next seven are unlikely to be contending for the top 5 spots.
The six girls entered are well-spaced. Pashence Turner leads the pack with 47.24, set April 27 and approximately matched May 5. Jenna Doyno has run well of late too, winning the Kanto League and Kanto Invitational with her best times, but two seconds back of Turner. Kelsey Rodgers of Kadena has run well since her best on April 6 (49.93), but did poorly at Kanto Invite. This may open the door for Josie Mitchell and Daisy Reyes, who have improved every week, saving their best for last and making them candidates to challenge for third place in this group. Mitchell has already beaten Rodgers, with Reyes close behind, at the OAC District meet.
