Hydel look to end season on a high at East Coast meet

BALTIMORE, Maryland:

FOLLOWING their record-breaking performance in the 4x400 metres at last weekend’s Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Hydel High will be hoping to end their season in fine style when they compete at the East Coast International Showcase meet tomorrow.

This will be the fourth staging of the meet, which will feature more than 1,200 athletes at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. Action starts at 9 a.m. (Jamaica time) at the new venue for the meet. The previous stagings were at the PG Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, Maryland.

Hydel will be one of four Jamaican high school teams at the meet, the others are Excelsior High, Holmwood Technical and Denbigh High.

Leading the charge for Hydel tomorrow will be sprinters Jody-Ann Daley and Abigail Campbell, key members of the record-breaking 4x400m team in Philadelphia. Campbell, the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) Class One 400m winner, clocked a personal best of 52.17 seconds at the recent inaugural Grand Slam Track meet. She will take on Sophie Rambo of Grassfield High (season’s best 52.47) and Sydney Sutton of Bullis High (52.75). Campbell’s teammate Nastassia Fletcher, the Champs Class Two champion who has also dipped under 53 seconds this season, and Abrina Wright of Holmwood the Champs Class One silver medallist.

The outstanding Daley, who ran the anchor leg at the Penn Relays and who won both the Class One 100m hurdles and 200m at Champs, will contest the 200m tomorrow. She will face Elise Cooper of McDonough High School, who has clocked 22.71 this season. Daley’s teammates, Sashana Johnson and Shemonique Hazle, will also run the half-lap event.

Excelsior’s Kishawn Hoffman, the surprise winner of the Class One 400m hurdles at Champs will lead the Jamaican charge in the boys’ events. He will be joined by Champs Class Two finalist Kingsley Hanson of Denbigh.

After his outstanding 400m relay split of 43.99 for Bullis High at the Penn Relays, Olympian Quincy Wilson is the top attraction in the 400m. His season’s best is 45. 27. Omarie Williamson of Holmwood with a season’s best of 46.66, will lead the Jamaican challenge in this event. Also down to compete are Chanton Whyte of Denbigh, the Class Two bronze medallist at Champs, and Demarco Bennett of Excelsior.

Jamaican athletes will also be well-represented in the 100m. The top entrants are Malike Nugent of Excelsior with a personal best of 10.35, his teammate Riquelme Reid (10.41) and Jaydon Collins of Holmwood Technical (10.59).