Humphrey, Williams pleased to win MVPs again

Lots of other great performances at Challenge

by Arthur L. Mack

MOBILE, Alabama, April 6—For Marlon Humphrey of Hoover (Ala.) High and Kendall Williams of Kell High (Marietta, Ga.) being chosen as DyeStat Most Valuable Performers in the Mobile Challenge of Champions was very special.

It was the first time in the 21-year history of the meet that the meet had two back-to-back MVPs.

Humphrey had an outstanding day, winning the 110-meter hurdles in 13.30 seconds, which was under the record of 13.60 set by DeAndre Eiland of Tupelo High in Tupelo, Mississippi in 2000. However, since there was a 4.1 mile an hour tailwind, Humphrey’s time did not count as a record.

There was no issue with the wind, though, when Humphrey won the 300-meter hurdles in 35.60—destroying the old record of 36.33 set by Olympian Bershawn Jackson of Miami (Fla.) Central in 2001. Humphrey capped off the evening with a 46.6 anchor leg on the 4x400 meter relay team, moving Hoover from fifth to second, losing only to Catholic-Baton Rouge, 3:19.47 to 3:20.78.

The time in the 110-meter hurdles made Humphrey the seventh fastest in national prep history (all conditions), and the current US#1 300-meter hurdle time puts him at #10.  He won both events in 2012, as well.

“It feels pretty good getting back-to-back MVP honors,” he said. “I was looking forward to a couple of other guys competing in the 300 hurdles with me. I started off really strong, but I got thrown off (rhythm) on the first hurdle and I had to really reach. With the national record being 35.02, anything is possible, and I’m looking for the chance to get it.”

Williams had it just a little bit tougher.

She started the day winning the long jump, going 19 feet, 7-¼ inches, less than six inches ahead of runner-up Kiara Williams of Homewood (Ala.) High (19-1-½). Two hours later, she was at the high jump, battling hometown favorite Shelly Spires of St. Paul’s Episcopal. Both cleared 5-7, with Williams winning in a jump-off.

But in the 100-meter hurdles, Williams pulled away from Pensacola (Fla.) Pine Forest star Johna’ Whitaker, winning in a US#1 13.61—just .01 from tying the record set by Clearwater (Fla.) Catholic’s Char Foster in 1995.  Last year, her winning marks in the same events were 20-6w, 5-10, and 13.64.

“I didn’t have the day that I wanted, but it feels really good repeating as MVP,” she said. “In the 100-meter hurdles, my start was a little slow, but I’m okay with the time. In the high jump, I had problems with my approach, and in the long jump, I need to break through that 19-foot barrier.”

In all, there were five meet records broken in Saturday’s competition.

One of the notable records came in the boys’ pole vault, where not one, but two athletes broke the old record of 16-7 set in 2011 by Andreas Duplantis of Lafayette High in Lafayette, La. Devin King of Kentwood, Louisiana’s Jules Sumner High won with a clearance of 17-3, while another Louisiana vaulter, Dylan Duvio of John Curtis, was second in 17-0.

The boys 4x100 crew from Edna Karr of New Orleans – leading the nation coming into the weekend at 40.84 – broke the meet record in their specialty with a swift time of 41.15, while Auburn (Ala.) High’s Cameron Luper won the long jump with a US#2 24-6 ½ leap, breaking the old record of 24-3 set by Jonathon Brown (Union County, Morganfield, Ky.).

Luper, who went on to win the 200 in a US#2 21.07, said that he had been primed to have a good showing outdoors since indoor nationals, where he was second at 24-8 ½.

“When I hit it (the record-breaking jump), I thought it was 25 feet,” he said. “It all started in the indoor nationals. My coach pushes us to do better every day, and when you put God first, anything can happen.”

Luper’s teammate, Justin Carter, broke the record in the boys’ javelin by more than eight feet, throwing a nation-leading 208-9. The old record of 200-5 was set by Preston Chatham of St. Paul’s-Covington (La.) in 2005.

There was also a near-miss of a meet record in the girls’ mile, where McGill-Toolen Catholic’s Carmen Carlos was pursuing the meet record of 4:49.76, set by Cory McGee of Pass Christian, Mississippi in 2010. Carlos went out strong and broke away from the field early in the race, going through the first two lap splits in 69-2:24.

After winning the race in 4:51.16 and missing the meet record, she said that she should have been more conservative in the first lap.

“I wanted to try and get a good time,” she said “The goal was to have a good pace, but I started out too fast. I’m a little disappointed, because I was concentrating on getting a personal record. I’m ready to run a 4:48, but I just have to run a little smarter.”

Another near miss of a record came in the girls’ pole vault, where Madison Heath of Fountainbleau High in Mandeville, La. came very close to breaking the meet record of 13-2 set by Morgan Leleux of New Iberia Catholic in 2011. Heath had to settle for 13-0.

Several other athletes had notable performances:

• McDonough 35’s Marcquita Stalbert was a repeat double winner in the girls’ 200 and 400. Stalbert won the 200 in 23.85 and the 400 in 55.00, defending her 2012 titles.
• Austin Droogsma of Gulf Breeze High (Fla.) was a double winner as well, winning the boys’ shot put (60-9) and the discus (176-1). He was second and third in those events in 2012.
• Hartselle (Ala.) triple jumper Quanisha Burks defended her title with a jump of 38-3 ¼, edging out a pair of Alabama jumpers, Opelika’s Jakayla Hand (38-1 ¼) and Guntersville’s Raven Stewart (38-1/4).
• Whitaker followed up her second-place finish in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles with a successful defense of her 300-meter hurdle title (42.42), edging out Bryiana Richardson of Harvey, Louisiana’s Helen Cox (42.69) and Ka’lynn Jupiter of Donaldsonville, La. (42.82).  Whitaker also anchored the winning 4x400 for Pine Forest.
• Leanne Zimmer of Suwanee, Ga. Lambert edged out Mobile’s Kathryn Lazarchick of UMS-Wright in an exciting girls’ 800-meter battle. Zimmer ran 2:12.01, while Lazarchick ran a personal best 2:12.22.
•  A pair of Alabama athletes—Tuscaloosa County’s Donnie Lee and Mountain Brook’s Peyton Ballard—finished 1-2 in the boys’ 800. Lee won in 1:53.10, while Ballard was not far behind in 1:53.68.