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Mary Cain Inside
Greg Armstrong Armory Track

Cain Makes News

by Brett Hoover — posted on 12/19/2011

BREAKING NEWS: Mary Cain is no longer being coached by Bronxville head girls' coach Jim Mitchell, but will continue to run for Bronxville High School under the guidance of boys' coach Ed Stickles.

So, the indoor season at The Armory has been going for a few weeks now, but things really heated up this weekend at the Bishop Loughlin Games, Jim Mitchell Invitational and Section I Kickoff No. 2.

In contention for performer of the week is Bronxville sophomore Mary Cain, who strung together two amazing performances. She ran 2:49.58 in the 1,000 meters at the Jim Mitchell Invitational, which was 1/10th of a second behind the national sophomore record set by Bellport's Brittany Sheffey in 2005.

Cain then returned for a Section 1 meet on Sunday and broke The Armory record in the 1,500-meter run, clocking a 4:29.4h. Danielle Tauro of Southern Regional in New Jersey had held the mark at 4:29.83 since 2007.

Yet Cain's 1k wasn't the highlight of the Mitchell Invite as the girls from North Shore stole the headlines near the end of the evening by shattering the national record in the 4x1500-meter relay. The foursome of Elizabeth Caldwell (4:52.7), Jessica Donohue (4:55.7), Samantha Nadel (4:29.8) and Brianna Nerud (4:32.7) ran 18:50.91, which is more than 25 seconds faster than the previous mark of 19:16.43 set by Greenwich (N.Y.) in 2006.

There was no slow down at the Loughlin Games on Saturday as the features of the day were the mile runs, which provided automatic qualifiers into the Millrose Games high school miles. PSAL cross country sensation Alexis Panisse — the Benjamin Cardozo senior headed to the University of Tennessee — won the girls' race with a strong finish in 5:00.87.

Then the Foot Locker Nationals' champion Edward Cheserek took his first spin on the indoor oval this season and crushed the Games' mile record by recording 4:09.90. That came after he was boxed in early and ran 66.7 for the first quarter. Marc Pelerin of Cherokee High had the old Loughlin mark at 4:15.2.

Among the notable boys' winners were:

  • Philadelphia's Eric Futch of Penn Wood, who won the 300-meter dash with a No. 10 U.S. all-time 33.56. The national record remains 33.19 set by Philadelphia Central's William Reed.
  • Another Philadelphian, Haneef Hardy of Swenson, won the 600-meter run by more than a second (1:21.86).
  • Willingboro's Isaac Williams of Willingboro, who edged Jose Farley, Jr., of Sheepshead Bay in the final of the 55-meter hurdles as both clocked 7.43.
  • Long Island's Erin Parker of Roosevelt, who was the 55-meter dash champion, running an impressive 6.51 to beat out more than 200 sprinters.
  • Brooklyn's Robert Rhodes of Boys & Girls, who has already looked impressive this December, took the 1,000-meter run in 2:31.13, two-tenths swifter than Jacob Clark of Pleasantville.
  • Greenwich's Austin Lane, who won the two-mile run in 9:18.34 and held off spirited challenges from Stuyvesant's Konrad Surkont (9:22.73) and Tatnall's Sam Parsons (9:23.24).
  • Uniondale teammates Chris Armour and Derrick Ingram finished 1-2 in the long jump while Armour going 22-8 3/4 and Ingram 22-3.
  • Sheepshead Bay won the 4x2 in 1:30.10 while Boys & Girls posted 3:20.04 to win the 4x4 by a wide margin. Kellenberg took the 4x8 by running sub-8 early in the season (7:59.31).

    • On the girls' side, Panisse was one of four Cardozo champions as Lateisha Philson took the 55m dash, Akayla Anderson the 55m hurdles and Sabrina Southerland the 1,000. Philson beat Valencia Hannon of Elmont, 7.06 to 7.13. Anderson finished in 8.02 ahead of Alexis Franklin of Old Mill (8.06). Southerland won comfortably in 2:57.50. Other girls' notables:

  • Kadecia Baird of Medgar Evers was the winner of the girls' 300-meter dash, finishing her rounds in a speedy 38.35. That now stands as No. 11 all-time in the U.S. Kyle Plante of Colonie was second in 39.22.
  • Kaitlin Whitehorn of John Glenn won the high jump with a clearance of 5-8.
  • Staten Island's Dominique Claudio of St. John Villa won a close 600-meter dash, 1:35.49 to 1:35.66, over Suffern's Sara Adler. Dewitt Clinton's Brittany Adams was third in 1:35.78.
  • Swensen from Philadelphia won the girls' 4x400-meter relay in a nation leading 3:55.20 as Markeeta Thomas — LaTavia Thomas' sister — anchored. St. John Villa was a close second (3:55.81) while no other team ran sub-4.
  • Iana Amsterdam of Newark Tech was a quarter-inch from being a double winner. She claimed the triple jump with a hop, skip and jump of 38-3 1/2 and was second in the long jump at 17-2 3/4.
  • The girls of Medgar Evers won the 4x200-meter dash in 1:41.07, a new Loughlin Games' record.
  • Suffern freshman Kate Zendell was the winner of the girls' two-mile run in 11:20.27, a 13-second victory over Oakland Mills' Tiffany Lang (11:33.12).