A reality check in Mt. SAC Relays
Norman's third-place finish shows making U.S. World Championship squad in 100 will not be easy
WALNUT, California – Anyone who thought Michael Norman was going to make a seamless transition from being the dominant men’s quarter-miler in the world last year to being one of the United States’ 100-meter sprinters in the World Athletics Championships in August got a rude awakening in the Mt. San Antonio College Relays on Saturday afternoon.
That’s when Norman finished third in the elite section of the men’s 100 in a wind-aided 10.02 seconds at Hilmer Lodge Stadium.
While his time was not bad for a season opening race, the fact that it left Norman behind first-place Cravon Charleston (9.87) and second-place Kyree King (9.98) was not a good omen for someone who is aspiring to make a U.S. team that swept the medals in the men’s 100 in the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon last July.
Although Norman did not get off to a great start, he appeared to be within striking distance of first-place Charleston about 40 meters into the race. But he simply did not make up ground on Charleston during the second half of the race and fell behind King.
“I’m just happy to finally open up,” the typically talkative Norman said as he quickly exited the track. He did not make any other comments, other to say there was a lot of work to be done.
As the defending World champion in the 400, Norman has an automatic bye into the World Championships in that event if he chooses to go that route. But he announced earlier this year that he wanted to concentrate on the 100 for the first time in his career after excelling in both the 400 and 200 since his prep days at Vista Murrieta High School in Murrieta, California.
He said he was looking forward to the challenge of focusing on a different sprint event, but he also seemed drawn to the allure of being called the world’s fastest human.
“If you’re the 400 World champion, you don’t get that coveted title of the world’s fastest man,” Norman was quoted as saying in a post on the olympics.nbcsports.com site in February. “[The 100] is the race that the world watches… I think the moment’s now. I feel like I’m reaching my prime.”
Charleston, 23, was eliminated in the semifinals of the 100 in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships last year and did not make it out of the first round of the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2021. However, he refrained from getting overly excited about his victory.
He said he was focused only on himself and staying relaxed during the race.
“You can feel the pressure if someone’s there,” he said when asked if he knew where he was in the race in relation to Norman. “If not, you’re like, Okay. I’m good, relax and concentrate on turning over.”
While Norman was the only individual gold medalist from last year’s World Championships to compete on the final day of the four-day meet, silver medalists Rai Benjamin, Mykolas Alekna, and Camryn Rogers were victorious in the men’s 400-meter intermediate hurdles, men’s discus, and women’s hammer throw, respectively.
Benjamin, as one of the public address announcers commented, ran one of the easiest-looking 47.74-second clockings in the intermediate hurdles that you’re ever going to see.
The second-fastest performer in history with a best 46.17, the 25-year-old Benjamin roared to a huge lead in the first half of the race and was never seriously challenged for the victory as he finished nearly two seconds in front of second-place Cass Elliott of Washington, who ran 49.65.
His time was the fastest in the world this year, but Benjamin said he could have run substantially faster had he wanted to.
“Today was just a technique race,” he said. “It was just about working on the first three hurdles. . . I didn’t want to run too fast and then have people saying I’m running too fast for this early in the season.
Benjamin seemed to make his comments with some disdain, as he said he was aware that some people believed he had run too fast for this point in the season when he lowered his personal best in the 400 to 44.21 a week earlier.
Alekna, a sophomore at UC Berkeley, won the men’s discus with a best of 68.35 meters (224 feet 3 inches).
The 20-year-old Lithuanian was in second place after the first four rounds of the competition, but his 68.35 effort in the fifth round put him in the lead for good.
He closed his day with a toss of 65.32 (214-3) and he also exceeded 65 meters in the second and fourth rounds with throws of 65.43 (214-8) and 65.89 (216-2).
Roje Stona of Arkansas finished second with a best of 66.64 (218-7) as the Jamaican hit that mark on his final effort in the sixth round.
Rogers, a three-time NCAA champion at Cal before turning professional last summer, might have turned in the best performance of the meet when she set a Canadian record in winning the women’s hammer throw and moving to seventh on the all-time world performer list in the process.
Last year’s Commonwealth Games champion, Rogers unleashed a 77.84 (255-4) bomb on her first throw to break her previous national record of 77.67 (254-10) that she had set in winning her third NCAA title last year with the fifth collegiate record of her career.
Although she was unable to top her first throw during the remainder of the competition, the 23-year-old Rogers had throws of 77.14 (253-1) in the sixth round, 76.77 (251-10) in the third round, and 76.03 (249-5) in the fourth.
Thus far, she has competed in two meets this season and taken nine throws, all of which are the Nos. 1-9 marks in the world this year.
The men’s 400 meters was one of the most exciting races of the day as Justin Robinson of Arizona State came from behind to win the event in 44.98 seconds.
NCAA indoor champion Elija Godwin of the University of Georgia stormed through the first half of the race, but he was beginning to tire as he entered the home straightaway. Ismail Turner of UCLA and Robinson were the two competitors who first began to close in on Godwin, and though Turner might have overtaken him first, Robinson then overtook Turner 20-25 meters before the finish line.
Turner finished second in 45.13 and Christopher Bailey of Arkansas placed third in 45.30. Godwin was fifth in 45.64.
“I knew [Godwin] was going to take it out pretty hard,” said Robinson, who was eliminated in the semifinals of the NCAA Indoor Championships. “I just had to focus on my own race and execute as best as possible.”
He added that he felt good entering the home straightaway.
“I knew I had a lot of energy left and I saw where I was position wise,” he said. “I knew I could finish strong and get a pretty good time.”
Juliette Whittaker of Stanford completed a victorious double on Saturday afternoon when she won the women’s 800 meters after winning the 1,500 on Friday evening.
A freshman who set a national high school record of 1:59.04 in the girls’ 800 last year, Whittaker won the 1,500 by surging past Olivia Howell of Illinois with 80 meters left in the race. But she did not take the lead in the 800 until the final 6-7 meters of the race.
Whittaker appeared to have little chance of winning with 80 meters left as she was in fourth place and freshman teammate Roisin Willis and Sammy Watson of Adidas had opened up a lead on her entering the home straightaway. But Whittaker began to reel them in with 50 meters left in the race and she edged past them with just a couple of strides left.
She ran 2:01.79, followed by Willis in 2:01.97 and Watson in 2:01.98.
There were numerous other noteworthy performances in the meet.
Amongst them were victories by Emmanuel Ihemeje of Italy in the men’s triple jump, Vashti Cunningham of the U.S in the women’s high jump, and Cordell Tinch of Pittsburg State and Talie Bonds of Arizona in the straightaway hurdle races.
Ihemeje bounded a wind-aided 17.47 (57-3¾) in the first round of the triple jump and he also had a wind-aided mark of 17.37 (57-0) in the sixth round.
Cunningham cleared 1.98 (6-6) in the high jump. She made that height on her third attempt after making 1.83 (6-0), 1.88 (6-2), and 1.93 (6-4) on her first efforts.
Tinch ran a wind-aided 13.22 in the men’s 110-meter high hurdles after Bonds had clocked a personal best of 12.65 in the women’s 100 hurdles.
Rodrick Pleasant of Serra High in Gardena, Reign Redmond of Carson, Davis Davis-Lyric of Upland, and Xai Ricks of Long Beach Poly were some of the athletes from Southern or Los Angeles City section schools who performed particularly well in the high school portion of the meet.
Pleasant, the defending California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) state champion in the boys’ 100 and 200, won the 100 at Mt. SAC with a wind-aided time of 10.23.
Pleasant had withdrawn from the 100 and 200 in the Arcadia Invitational after experiencing some muscle tightness in his leg after running the 400 relay in that meet. But he came out of the blocks quickly on Saturday and finished well ahead of Augustus Remlinger of Buchanan High in Clovis (10.39).
Redmond tied her City Section record of 11.45 seconds in the winning the girls’ 100 after previously running the anchor leg on the Colts’ team that won the 400 relay in 45.28.
The time by Christina Gray, TaAhjan Fann, Kaitlyn Williams, and Redmond bettered their winning 45.51 effort from the Arcadia Invitational the previous week and solidified their hold on second on the all-time City Section list. The section record of 45.06 was set by Carson in winning the 2016 state title.
Davis-Lyric won the boys’ 110-meter high hurdles in 14.04 seconds and the 300 intermediate hurdles in 38.14.
Ricks anchored Long Beach Poly to a come-from-behind victory in the 1,600 relay and a time of 3:14.26 after previously running the 400-meter leg on a Jackrabbit squad that won the sprint medley relay in 3:26.31, which was tied for the fastest prep time in the nation this year.
The 1,600 relay was particularly exciting as Ricks was in second place — behind Long Beach Wilson’s anchor runner — when he received the baton for his leg. But he briefly dropped back to third place after Dijon Stanley of Granada Hills Charter passed both Ricks and the Long Beach Wilson anchor runner about a fourth of the way down the backstretch.
Ricks then set off in pursuit of Stanley, who won the 400 in 45.92 at Arcadia in a race in which Ricks placed fifth in 47.13.
Stanley still had the lead entering the home straightaway, but Ricks pulled alongside of him with about 50 meters left before drawing away to a 3:14.26 to 3:14.69 victory.
Those were the two fastest times in the state this year.