THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 20, 1994 TAG: 9406200119
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940620 LENGTH: RALEIGH
Colander won titles in the 100- and 200-meter dash and the 100-meter hurdles. She set meet records in the 100 - a race she hadn't even planned to run - and in her speciality, the 100 hurdles.
{REST} The Wilson High graduate, who is headed for the University of North Carolina, is the first athlete in meet history to win three titles.
``It was a goal,'' she said. ``My body was tired, but I tried to stay focused mentally.''
The 12-time Virginia state champion had planned to run only the 100 hurdles and the 200. But when two top sprinters from California pulled out at the last minute, meet organizer Mike Byrnes asked Colander's coach, John Crute if she would run the 100 as well.
Crute, who saw a chance at a historic triple, talked Colander into it.
``I looked at him like he was crazy,'' Colander said. ``But I said I'd take the chance. I was going to take whatever I got in the 100.''
What she got was the meet record, set Friday in a qualifying heat, when she ran an 11.65. The old mark was 11.85. In Sunday's 100, her first race of the day, Colander ran an 11.83, winning easily.
``The 100 felt like a little practice,'' she said. ``I just glided through that one, trying to get some speed work for the hurdles.''
The hurdles were about 90 minutes later. Colander, who has the nation's fastest time this year (13.70), had broken the meet record with a 13.74 in qualifying Friday. She broke it again with a 13.73 in Saturday's final.
That left the 200, just 10 minutes later. In the only real race of the afternoon, Colander pulled away from Michelle Mundey of Washington, D.C., in the final 50 meters and won at 23.56. Mundey ran 23.65.
``When we got to the final 100, I just tried to push and push to see what else could come out,'' Colander said. The competition, particularly in the 100 and 200, had figured to be a little tougher, Colander said: ``A lot of the California girls I was hoping to run against didn't make it.''
Colander will probably see them Friday and Saturday at the Junior National Championships in Tallahassee, Fla. Crute said Colander may run just the 110 hurdles next weekend. If she places in the top two, she'll make the U.S. Junior National Team that will travel to the World Junior Championships in Portugal this fall.
On the other end of the spectrum Saturday was Salem High's Charles Reid, who was shooting for a championship in the 110-meter hurdles.
Reid was also entered in the 400-meter hurdles. His performance in that race, the first of the afternoon, told him it wasn't going to be his day.
Reid, a senior, stumbled and fell coming around the final turn in the 400 hurdles. When he got up and saw how far behind he was, he jogged the rest of the way and finished 23rd.
Things didn't go much better in the 110 hurdles. Reid, who owns the nation's fastest time this year, stumbled over the fifth hurdle and nearly fell. He finished eighth, in 15.71.
``I guess everybody has an off day, and this was mine,'' Reid said. ``I'm going to bounce back next week (in Tallahassee).''
Reid's Salem teammate, Mike Brown, fared better, finishing third in a record-setting mile. Reid chased Mebrathom Keflizighi of San Diego and Virginia state champion Seneca Lassiter of Lafayette High through three blistering laps before falling off the pace. ``I just wasn't used to that pace,'' Brown said.
Keflizighi ran a 4:05.58, well under the meet record of 4:11.51. Lassiter ran 4:07.13 and Brown 4:16.65.
Also placing was First Colonial's Jamie Kollar, who took third in the discus despite spraining her ankle in a practice throw Friday. Kollar threw 129-1 on her final throw to clinch third.
Other local medal winners were Bayside's Greg Benhase, fifth in the pole vault, and the Green Run boys and Bayside girls 4x100 relay teams, which also finished fifth.
Norview's Jimmie Foster was sixth in the 400 hurdles, while Bayside's Michelle Thompson was eighth in the high jump. Salem's Sherlane Armstrong was 10th in the long jump and 11th in the triple jump.
by CNB