By RENALDO DORSETT
Sports Reporter
rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
IN a year that featured their 25th BAISS Track and Field Championship, the St Augustine’s College Big Red Machine closed the season with a commanding performance at a record setting 2013 Scotiabank National High School Track and Field Championships.
The Big Red Machine won five of eight divisions at the meet, including a dominating sweep of all four girls’ divisions - bantam, junior, intermediate, senior - and the intermediate boys’ division.
TA Thompson in the bantam boys, Queen’s College in the junior boys and CR Walker in the senior girls took the other remaining divisions.
Fifteen records fell at the three-day meet led by many of the now household names introduced to the country at this year’s CARIFTA Games.
SAC’s Doneisha Anderson, who took bronze in the 400m at CARIFTA, broke the junior girls’ record in her signature event, finishing in a time of 57.80s and ahead of the 57.91s by fellow Big Red Machine quartermiler Dreshanae Rolle which stood for two years.
Anderson was also a part of the record setting 4x400m relay team along with Marissa White, Clesea Smith and Blayre Catalyn, who set a new meet record in 4:04.35s.
Catalyn was another outstanding performer for the Big Red Machine in the junior girls’ division, setting a new record in the 100m. Her time of 12.36 topped the eight-year-old mark of 12.40s set by Sparkyl Cash.
SAC’s senior girls’ 4x100m team of Keianna Albury, Makeya White, Danielle Gibson and led by CARIFTA 100m gold medallist Devynne Charlton set a new record of 46.60s. The old mark of 46.84 set by RM Bailey had stood since 2004.
The Big Red Machine also turned in record-breaking performances in the field as both Zhinell McKenzie and Serena Brown, in a 1-2 finish respectively in the intermediate girls’ shot put, surpassed the old mark of 12.40m.
McKenzie, the new record holder, threw 12.64m while Brown was second in 12.50m and Brashae Wood finished third with 12.29m, giving SAC the top three finishers in the event.
In the discus, Brown was able to beat out Wood, the CARIFTA bronze medallist in the shot put, and set a new mark with a throw of 37.03m. Wood was second with 36.55m and McKenzie was third with 28.37m.
SACs Kyra McKinney set a new record in the junior girls’ javelin with a throw of 23.05m.
The junior girls division was the most productive for SAC where their 189 points was 98 points ahead of second place finisher Queen’s College Comets with 91.
In the intermediate girls’ division, SAC’s 192.5 points was 45.5 points ahead of second place finisher QC with 147.
In the junior girls, SAC’s 213 points was 71 points ahead of second place finisher, where the Comets finished with 142 and in the bantam girls it was a 39- point edge for the Big Red Machine with 99 points while HO Nash finished second with 60.
In the intermediate boys, it was a 90-point edge for SAC with 171 points over the CV Bethel Stingrays and their 81 points.
TA Thompson scored 85.5 in the bantam boys, the Comets posted 163 in the junior boys and CR edged SAC by three points in the senior boys 129-126.
Other meet record holders included Henri Deluze, a CARIFTA finalist in the under-17 400m and member of the gold-medal winning 4x400m team. He set a new mark in the intermediate boys’ 400m in 48.53s.
Ken Mullings, CARIFTA silver medallist in the under-17 boys’ high jump, continued his stellar season with another record-setting performance. The CC Sweeting Cobra soared 2.00m to surpass the previous record of 1.98 set by Ricardo Jacques in 2003.
The bantam division saw several records fall as the youngest competitors made their impressions felt.
In the 800m, the St Anne’s Blue Waves’ Omavi Collison finished in a new record time of 2:33.54s eclipsing the two-year mark of 2:34.64s.
In the 200m, the Comets’ Rubin Smith-Bastian’s time of 26.58s in the heats set a new meet record. He went on to win the finals in 27.52s.
Smith-Bastian nearly etched his name in the record books for a second in the high jump, but finished second (1.47m) to Benry Smith of Central Andros who took first place in 1.52m. The old mark was 1.45m.
On the girls’ side of the bantam division, Kennedy Culmer of Sunland Baptist Academy finished in 13.19s, ahead of the old mark of 13.31s.
Laquan Nairn lived up to his reputation as the most dominant high school jumper in the country with first place finishes in the long jump (7.45m) and high jump (2.10m).
The Comets’ Jenae Ambrose took the sprint double in the 100m and 200m in the intermediate girls’ division. The silver medallist in the CARIFTA under-17 girls’ 200m took the 100m in 12.11s and 200m in 25.29s.
Mikhail Bethel of St Andrew’s, another CARIFTA medallist in the 400m hurdles, took first place in his signature event with a time of 57.45s.
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