Two razor-thin finishes, two different outcomes. Marlboro’s Ada Unachukwu finished just 2¼ inches ahead of her nearest competitor in the girls high school triple jump, but it was more than good enough to win the Penn Relays championship Thursday. The Marlboro junior extended her personal best to 38-11¾ at historic Franklin Field. Runner-up Krystina Muhammad of Newark, Del., and thirdplace Shanieka Thomas of Vere Tech, Jamaica, each did 38-9½. In all, seven jumpers did 38 feet or better and it was very close competition.
PHOTO BY TIM MORRIS Manalapan’s Robby Andrews (wearing bib No. 2) and Cory Leslie of Perkins High School, Sandusky, Ohio, run side by side to the finish line in the Boys’ High School Mile Run at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia on April 25. Leslie won with a 4:12.76, while Andrews came across the line with a time of 4:12.82. Manalapan’s Robby Andrews was in the race of the day Friday, falling .06 short in the boys high school mile. Andrews’ stunning last lap closed a 20-yard gap on the leader, but, he was unable to chase down Cory Leslie (Perkins High School, Sandusky, Ohio) at the line. Both runners fell to the track in a frantic dive to the line with Leslie winning in 4:12.76 and Andrews next at 4:12.82.
“I thought I had him” said Andrews. “With 30 or 40 yards left, he [Leslie] looked back at me. He had a half a gear more than me.”
Andrews, the state indoor 800-meter champion, looked out of it on the bell lap. He was not only some 20 yards behind Leslie, but well back in the back pack trailing among others and indoor national champion Kyle Merber of Half Hollow His West (N.Y.), who had beaten Andrews in the high school mile at the Millrose Games.
On the back straight, Andrews shifted gears dramatically and began to surge past runners. Still, it looked like he was running for a good placing when he caught and ran by Merber as if the national champion were standing still.
With 150 yards left, the high-flying Brave had caught and passed everyone, save Leslie.
“When I passed Merber, I didn’t realize that he [Leslie] had that huge of a lead,” Andrews recalled.
Coming off the turn it looked like once again Andrews’ closing speed was going to bring him a come-from-behind win.
Leslie could feel someone gaining and looked back to see Andrews closing on him at double-speed. Leslie found a little something to hold the fort for a few more strides. Andrews edged closer as they approached the finish line. Andrews overextended in one last attempt to catch Leslie and crashed to the track at the line. Leslie tumbled as well and both had the satisfaction of knowing they had left it all on the track.
“The pain was worth it,” said Andrews.
Andrews blasted his last 200 in an astonishing 25 seconds.
The Brave junior said that he hopes in future races like this to avoid the come-from-behind scenario.
“I need to have more confidence to stay in second or third place [at the bell lap] and not be running from behind,” he said.
Andrews found the atmosphere at the Penn Relays surpassed the indoor mecca that is Millrose.
“This was more exciting than Millrose,” he said. “This was something special.”
For Unachukwu this was her third appearance at Penn, which helped her deal with the Penn carnival-like atmosphere.
“I was a little more comfortable,” she said.U
nachukwu who likes to get a big jump early to take the pressure off, got off a huge one in her second attempt, well beyond 39 feet. But the flag went up indicating a foul. That jump was a sign that she had a big jump in her.
On her next jump, she was well behind the take-off board and still reached 38-11¾ to grab the lead. Her mark would hold up through the final and she was a Penn Relays champion.
“I thought I was jumping better,” she said. “Coming into a meet like this you try your best. Everything is possible.
“I’m happy about winning and that I jumped further [personal best],” she added. “It was a great experience.”
Unachukwu, who was an All-American in the triple jump indoors, is the first American to win the high school triple in five years. Jumpers from Jamaica had won it the last four.
Unachukw displayed her sprinting talents as well by anchoring the Mustangs 4×100-meter team to a District record 50.38. Elaina Mexxasalma, Nikkie Percora and Nicole Scivoletto ran the first three legs.
Colts Neck’s Allison Linnell, who has run the country’s fastest 2K steeplechase, had a fine showing in the girls mile run. She turned in a 4:48.02 in finishing sixth Thursday night.
Freehold Township’s Dan Mularz turned in a fine 55.90 in the 400 intermediate hurdles Saturday and was 11th. His teammate Marcus Goode was 17th in the boy’s triple jump (44-9¾).
Notes….. Former Colts Neck High School stars Craig Forys and Ashley Higginson returned to Franklin Field as college runners.
Forys, running for the University of Michigan, didn’t win a Penn Relays title with the Cougars but he left his mark in the record book. His 4:04.2 anchor 1,600 in the Distance Medley Relay last year stands as the fifth fastest ever run in the 114-year history of the relays. The 8:21.82 3,000 meters he ran in 2006 is the eighth fastest ever and still, the swiftest ever by a New Jersey schoolboy.
Forys ran the lead-off 1,200 leg for the Wolverines DMR team and the second leg of the 4×1-mile team.
The freshman split 2:59.3 for his 1,200, a sure sign he is approach sub- 4:00 territory.
He came back on Saturday and turned in his fastest mile, 4:04.3, as the Wolverine’s finished sixth (16:35.40). Forys’ leg was the team’s fastest.
“It’s going great,” Forys said of his frosh year in Ann Arbor.
Forys, who was first team All-Big 10 in cross country, was red-shirted during the indoor season because of a sore upper hamstring. The 2:59.3 1,200 was just his third race since cross country.
“I’m a couple weeks away,” he said. “I’m fighting my way back.”
Forys said he will be running the 1,500 meters for Michigan this spring and wants to get to the NCAA Regionals. He’s run 3:50 for the distance and needs a 3:47 to qualify. He thinks he can get down to the 3:43-3:45 range by then.
Craig’s brother, Matt Forys, who graduated from Bucknell last year and now competing for the New Balance Jersey Shore, was fifth in the Olympic Development 3,000 steeplechase. The former Howell High School star clocked 8:58.31.
Higginson, now running for Princeton University, made it three-straight Penn Relays titles. The Tiger frosh won the college women’s 5,000-meter championship with a personal best 16:22.56. She held off Yale’s Lindsay Donaldson (16:24.01).
Higginson left her mark at Penn in the girls’ high school 3,000. She won it in back-to-back years (2006, ’07). Her 9:37.91 from 2007 is the fastest time every for a New Jersey girl and ninth fastest in Penn history.