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Panthers win boys, girls titles; ’Jackets stung by injuries 

Despite some disappointing events and a controversy to end the day, the St. Mary’s track & field team swept the 22nd Annual Oakland Invitational Relays on Saturday, winning the team titles for both boys and girls. 

The event, held at Edwards Stadium on the UC Berkeley campus, is one of the top meets in Northern California every year. But despite the far-flung competitors, coming from as far away as Oregon and Los Angeles, it was the hometown Panthers that came out on top. 

The boys’ team just edged Edison (Huntington Beach), 74.5 to 72, even with the absence of star hurdler and sprinter Halihl Guy for the morning events. Guy was busy taking his college entrance exams, missing the 4x100-meter relay and looking shaky in his signature hurdle races. In his first event of the day, the 110-meter hurdles, he pulled up short after hitting two of the hurdles and falling behind. 

“I thought I false started. But he never stopped the race, so I kept going, but it threw my steps off,” Guy said, allowing that his test might have been a factor in his performance. “I didn’t know what to concentrate on, my meet or my test. So I had to do both. It took a lot out of me today to be sitting there for four hours.” 

After running the anchor leg for the Panthers’ winning 4x200-meter relay, Guy was ready to run the 300-meter hurdles. He was facing stiff competition from Sheldon’s Trae Gaulman, and again hit a hurdle hard, slowing him momentarily. But he came on strong in the home stretch, and Gaulman hit the next to last hurdle and slowed down. Guy won the race with a time of 38.5 seconds, and he was all smiles.  

“I let (Gaulman) get out in front of me because I knew he would die at the end,” Guy said. “I knew I had enough strength left to go get him if I needed to, and that’s what I did.” 

But moments later, that smile was wiped off his face by a disqualification by one of the judges for a trail-leg violation on two of the hurdles. Guy was ready to write it off as a learning experience, but luckily for him, his coaches weren’t so ready to give up. St. Mary’s assistant coach Don Lawson had one of the hurdles in question on tape, and showed it to a meet official. Along with the fact that Guy had hit the other hurdle with his trail leg, the tape was enough for the judges to reinstate him. 

“They said there was a trail leg violation on hurdle four and hurdle five. He was hugging the inside of the lane with his lead leg, so his trail leg had to be right over the hurdle,” St. Mary’s head coach Jay Lawson said. “We started going through the tape, and he clearly went over hurdle five. He hit hurdle four so hard he almost fell, so he couldn’t really have gone around it.” 

Guy was good-natured throughout the ordeal. 

“I’m still mad, because they’re playing with my feelings,” he said with a grin on his face. “I’m glad they filmed me and could use the tape. I’m glad they protested for me, because that’s one more medal I have now. I would’ve just said ‘Oh well.’ But this was kind of a warmup for next weekend.” 

The Panthers will head down to the Arcadia Invitational, considered the top meet in California, this weekend. 

The Panthers won Saturday despite a disappointing effort by their two star triple jumpers, Asokah Muhammed and Solomon Welch. Prohibitive favorites coming into the meet, they were upset by De La Salle’s Peter Frances. Welch settled for second, while Muhammed, who has the state’s top triple jump this season, finished third. That result, combined with Guy’s hurdles adventures and a few other subpar performances, had Lawson shaking his head, especially considering the team’s strong showing at the Stanford Invitational last weekend. 

“Our expectation every meet is to have guys come in and run well and compete well, and in some events we didn’t compete very well,” Lawson said. “I don’t know if we’re looking forward to Arcadia or living off of the Stanford meet, but we’re definitely going to have to readdress being focused.” 

On the girls’ side, thrower Kamaiya Warren had another dominating performance, winning both the discus and shot put, contributing 20 points to her team’s total of 58. Warren has yet to lose in either event this season, and she is finally getting the idea that she might be one of the best in the state. 

“I’ve come to the realization that I’m actually good,” Warren said. “My parents and coaches have been telling me that I can be the best, and I’m finally starting to see it.” 

“Kamaiya’s throwing well consistently right now,” Lawson said. “She’s finally getting the confidence to do well every week.” 

Other highlights on the girls’ side were Quiana Plump finishing second in the long jump, and Danielle Stokes and Tiffany Johnson taking third in the 110-meter hurdles and the triple jump, respectively. But Johnson also false-started in the 100-meter dash. 

“I think (Johnson) got too anxious about the other big-time runners that were in her heat and just got a little jumpy,” Lawson said. “Those are the girls she needs to be able to run with. Some of them are making that move up to that next level of competition, and it’s taking her a while to get ready for that mentally.” 

Lawson feels his team will be peaking for the Arcadia meet this weekend, after a tough schedule has kept them off-balance. 

“We’re trying not to have everyone get up for their event every week for eight weeks, so we’re moving people around,” he said. “We’ll run our regular events in Arcadia, then get some rest in Davis (the following weekend at the Wilson Invitational). We’ll be emotionally up this week.” 

The defending meet champion Berkeley High girls’ team suffered through a rough day Saturday, managing just 10 points and seeing two stars go down to injuries. Sprinter Katrina Keith pulle dup lame in the 100-meter dash, and Rebekah Payne had to pull out after a quadricep injury suffered during the 4x100-meter relay.