|
Blanton 10.26, Wade 10.29
Wade 20.83, Blanton 21.10
Sprint showdown thrills crowd at Jesuit Sheaner Relays in
Dallas as Evangel LA sr Jonathan Wade and Forney TX sr
Dabryan Blanton trade photo finishes.
Juan Plaza's report
LA's Jonathan Wade was seeking the "hat trick",
beating all three Texas
high school State Meet sprint champions, Edorian McCullough,
class 5A
North Garland, Brandan Christian, Class 4A Austin Reagan,
and DaBryan
Blanton, class 3A Forney, having already beaten McCullough
and Christian
in the sprints earlier this year. Last summer he had also
defeated TX 4A
standout Nicholas Johnson of FW Wyatt. But, he was now
looking forward
to meeting up with Forney star DaBryan Blanton, who had the
best
performances nationally in both the 100m and 200m in 2001.
100m Recap!
At the gun they got out evenly, easily separating from the
field. Between
30 and 65 meters Wade seemed to pressed too much and
tightened allowing
the smooth flowing Blanton to create a full one yard lead.
At 65m Wade
then responded with a final burst of energy as he quickly
closed the gap.
Everyone there was on their feet at this time hollering and
cheering
because Wade was just about dead even with Blanton at the
tape. The fact
of the matter is Wade fell about 3 inches shy of victory as
Blanton was
declared the winner. Yes, it was that close. No one knew who
won the 100m
until they announced it over the loud speaker.
The 100 times were:
Blanton 10.26
Wade 10.29
The "unofficial" hand times were 9.95 to 9.96.
The official FAT marks
were announced over the loud speaker-- 10.26 for Blanton and
10.29 for
Wade---What a RACE!!!! Everyone got their 5 bucks worth on
that one!
But, next up was the 200 final. (100m prelims times were
Wade 10.40,
Blanton 10.59).
200m Recap!
Wade had a better lane because he was a tad more aggresive
in the prelims
(21.30 to 21.96) despite shutting it down way early as did
Blanton. Wade
was in 4 and Blanton in 7. At the gun Wade went for revenge
and ate up
the stagger, ala Debrecen-Hungary, on eveyone including
Blanton. Off the
turn Wade was in full control and never challenged. Blanton
tried to make
up some ground but the lead was there for keeps and Wade was
too strong.
Hand times were 20.5 to 20.8. The FAT marks were 20.83 to
21.10. Blanton
appeared stunned afterwards, since it is his first loss in 2
years. They
shook hands after race and talk of a rematch spread like
wild fire in the
stands. It was a great meet for sprint fans!!! These two are
two of the
best, period!
Both Wade and Blanton broke both 100 and 200 meet records
in their
divisions. They both went under the old records in both
races. It was
also their first taste of defeat this year.
Blanton is ahead of last year's pace and Wade is
recovering from a recent
injury so these two guys have a made quite a statement to
the rest of the
H. S. Sprintland USA.
|
