QC Comets dominate inaugural Cross Country Championships

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

ALTHOUGH it was a team scoring event, the Queen’s College Comets athletes turned in a dominating performance at the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools’ inaugural Cross Country Championships, winning six of the eight categories contested at St Augustine’s College on Saturday morning.

Only one of the divisional trophies that didn’t go to Queen’s College on Village Road was the senior boys. Instead, that crown went all the way to Lyford Cay as Jayden Wright held off St Augustine’s Lynden Johnson for the victory. Timothy Stuby, also from Lyford Cay, had to settle for a close third place.

Wright, 14, arrived late and missed the intermediate boys’ category, so he had to contest the senior boys. He went neck-and-neck with Johnson until he developed a slight lead on the last of two laps on the course that featured a few hills, to secure the win.

“It was good. I felt very tired at the start, but seeing number not too far ahead helped to push me to the finish,” said Wright, a versatile athlete who competes in triathlon, soccer and sailing. “It was definitely a first running up and down hills because I’m used to running on flat grounds, but it was still enjoyable.”

And moving up from the intermediate boys’ division worked in his favour.

“It was just mind blowing,” he insisted. I thought I was going to come a lot lower than I did.”

With the home court advantage, Johnson was poised to win, even after he took the lead coming through the first loop.

“I felt it was good. I felt I beat my personal best time, but I could have given more,” he pointed out. “When I was on the hill on the last loop, my legs tightened up and my body was collapsing, but somehow I pulled through and got second.”

Johnson, a 17-year-old 12th grader at SAC, admitted that he didn’t expect the competition from Wright because he surprised him when he showed up late.

While Johnson fell short, SAC got to keep the only divisional title on their Fox Hill campus in the bantam boys where Tumani Skinner asserted himself as future competitor to watch. He held off a strong challenge from the Comets to clinch the title over a pair of Comets’ Brian Harvey and Jonathan Harris in that order.

The senior girls’ division saw Davia Wright cruise to victory for Queen’s College as they got a 1-2 punch with Angel Pratt trailing as SAC’s Sasha Knowles ended up in third place.

“It was a good race. It was a bit hard because of the hills, but I was able to manoeuvre around it,” said Wright, a 12th grader at Queen’s College. “I just thank my coach (Theodore Hanna) and everybody else who cheered me on as I ran.”

Wright, 16, said the course was quite different.

“I normally run cross country, but I never ran this type of course,” she started. “I just run on flat ground.”

And swimmer Devin Cuffy-Bethel made sure she did her part for the Comets as she also led a 1-2 sweep for Queen’s College in the junior girls’ division. Her nearest rival was team-mate Grace Farrington with SAC’s Ezitha Maycock coming in third.

“It was tough, especially the hills,” said Cuffy-Bethel, a 13-year-old ninth grader. “I just had to run my own race and focus on just going as fast as I could.”

The course was certainly just as challenging for Cuffy-Bethel as was the competition.

“It was tight, but I think the hills were really difficult for everyone,” she pointed out.

The winners in the other categories were as follows:

Junior boys - Unbeaten all season long in any cross country or road race he’s competed in, Andrew Hepburn added to Queen’s College’s stock by taking the title in the one loop race with five SACers chasing him. Team-mates Jafari Longley and Nathan Johnson led the Big Red Machine’s train with second and third respectively.

Intermediate boys - Anton Pratt got a little bit of a challenge, but he was just a little better than the rest of the field to add his hardware to the Comets’ collection. SAC’s Brian Lockhart tried his best, but had to settle for second, while Jhayden Davis picked up third place for the Kingsway Academy Saints.

Bantam girls - Even though she’s following in her mother’s footsteps as a triple threat athlete, Anjaleah Knowles made her presence felt as the winner of another crowd for Queen’s College. SAC had to settle for the second and third place finishes from Trinity Pennerman and Taylor Adderley.

Intermediate girls - Llanza Chea knew she had her hands full, but she wasn’t prepared to let a quarter-miler beat her. She managed to get away and snatch the title from SAC’s Megan Moss, who held off Comets’ Kyla Bethel for second.

SAC’s meet organiser William ‘Knucklehead’ Johnson said although they didn’t have a full complement of schools from the BAISS participating, it was definitely a good start.

“I think in my mind it was a huge success. It was the first one. We wanted to do something different, another event to give the kids something to look forward to in terms of their training and preparation and to kind of gauge where they are right now,” he said. “But this will go a long way in trying to get more and better distance runners in the country.

“Cross country seems to be on the rebound, so this will go a long way in helping us to get where we need to get in terms of developing the distance runners. We had two cross country meets today, so somehow we need to get together and coordinate to make sure that don’t happen again.”

Johnson, one of the country’s former premier middle distance runners, revealed that the private school principals wanted to establish the event for the BAISS and while there were just five schools that participated this year, he said they intend to have everybody on board next year as they host what will become an annual event on their calendar. “We wanted to come out and have some fun and we had some good weather, so it was perfect for the first one,” he summed up.

Newly elected Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations president Drumeco Archer was on hand to help distribute the trophies to the top three finishers in each category.