Wilson Evens Season Head-to-Head Match-up with Andrew Salvodon To Earn Three-Peat In Boys 400; Sutton Dips Under 53 Seconds For First Time To Win Girls 400; Emmry Ross Improves Her US#1 Time to Win Girls 800 Title

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

Mataio Gillis and Luca Gills photos

INTERVIEWS|PHOTOS

BOSTON – New Balance Nationals Indoor may not be the Paris Olympics, but the meet has plenty of meaning for Quincy Wilson, especially when it comes to going after a third consecutive 400 meter national title.

The only person standing in his way on Saturday in Boston from accomplishing that was the person that beat him head-to-head at The VA Showcase back on Jan. 18: Andrew Salvodon.

The 400 meter high school record holder can now call it even with the 500 meter high school record holder after running a meet record 45.71 seconds in the 400 at the TRACK at New Balance.

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“Going out there and winning the race today, that was a great feeling,” Wilson said. “Just knowing all my hard work paid off.”

Two months passed since Wilson fell at the hands of Salvodon in an epic 500 meter race in Virginia Beach, where Salvodon edged out the Bullis MD star by a margin of 1:00.49 to 1:02.49, creating shockwaves around the country.

Heading into Saturday’s race, Wilson didn’t have a motive to get back at Salvodon; it was about running his race.

“It wasn’t about beating somebody,” Wilson said. “I just wanted to be myself and go out there and execute my race. I knew if I executed my race, great things would happen.”

Wilson took the advantage through the first 200 meters in 21.34 seconds, with Salvodon trailing nearly three quarters-of-a-second.

When Wilson hit the backstretch the final time, Salvodon responded with force and closed in on the heals of Wilson heading into the final turn.

Under 50 meters to go, Salvodon fell off pace and couldn’t match Wilson’s final surge, resulting in a second-place finish.

“Every part of my body was sacrificing itself just to get him,” Salvodon said. “But he carried himself, so at the end of the day, he was just better.”

Even at the cost of finishing second, Salvodon’s run elevated him to US#2 all-time at 45.83. It was the first indoor race in high school history featuring two sub-46-second quarter milers.

“At the end of the day, I knew it would be faster,” Salvodon said. “I gave myself a good old pep talk, knew what I had to do, and I got my result so I’m fine with it.”

Cameron Homer of Bullis earned third in a personal best 46.66 to move to US#6.

Wilson’s win fueled his teammate Sydney Sutton to help complete the 400 sweep for Bullis.

Sutton, out of section one in the two-section final, ran a US#1 52.75 to convincingly win the girls 400 meters over Sophia Rambo of Grassfield Track Club VA, who won section two in 53.31.

“I knew I could do it,” Sutton said. “Especially after that third-place finish from last year, that only motivated me to be even better.”

Sutton split 24.17 then closed in 28.58 to complete her 52.75 effort, moving her up to tenth on the high school all-time list.

Emmry Ross Last Second Move Gets Her 800 Win

Emmry Ross appeared to have lost the girls 800 meter when Makenna Herbst passed her with a lap to go.

Ross of Onsted MI had just enough in the home stretch to strike back, accelerating right passed Herbst of Carlsbad CA to win the national title in a meet record and a US#6 all-time run of 2:03.00.

Herbst ran 2:03.83 for second while moving to US#8 all-time.

Future Stanford teammates Olivia Cieslak and Clemmie Lilly finished third and fourth, respectively, in 2:04.66 and 2:05.64.

Cole Boone, high school record holder for the indoor 1,000 meters, led wire-to-wire in the boys 800 meter championship to win in 1:48.29, good for US#2 this season.

Oregon Distance Project (Crater OR) boys collected a third national title this weekend, winning the boys 4xMile relay in 16:59.08 to go with Tayvon Kitchen's 5,000 meter win and Josiah Tostenson's two-mile win.

Vista Nation Track Club (Mountain Vista CO) won the girls 4xMile relay in 20:06.86, adding to their Nike Cross Nationals title from this past fall.

Archbishop Carroll DC came close to breaking it’s own national record in the final of the boys 4x200 meter relay, but instead ran 1:24.99 for the win.

Montverde Academy FL won the girls 4x200 meter relay in 1:36.89 after a late disqualification of Bullis for an exchange zone infraction.

Shamrock Thoun of Ocean State Hammerheads won the boys weight throw competition, throwing 79 feet, 9.25 inches less than 24 hours after winning the weight throw title up at Nike Indoor Nationals in New York on Friday, winning that competition with a US#1 mark of 82-6.25.

Veronica Vacca (Mt. Saint Joseph Academy PA) cleared 13-9.25 to secure the women’s pole vault title.

Canadians Matthew Kathiravelu and Mykayla Scarlett each set a meet record en route to winning their respective field events. Scarlett of Project Athletics out of Toronto threw 62-5.25 to win the girls weight throw and Kathiravelu from Peterbourgh, Ontario, jumped 50-6.75 to win the boys triple jump.

Destini Smith of Souderton Black Cats hit 42-8.25 in the sixth round of the girls triple jump to secure the win.

Lisa Raye of West Warwick Track Club (West Warwick) ran 7.31 and Elise Cooper of McDonogh MD ran 7.35 in the preliminary round of the girls 60 meters to advance to Sunday’s semis. Both also advanced to the 200 meter final, too, with Cooper running 23.10 and Raye running 23.22 in the prelims.

Ryan Dierenfield posted the fastest boys 60 meters time in prelims in 6.69 to move to the semis.

Tyler Burgess of Capitol Area Forerunners ran the fastest time of the boys 60 meter hurdles semifinals in 7.70.

Taylor Cox of Union Catholic NJ continued her title defense in the girls 60 meter hurdles, running 8.21 in the semifinals to secure her spot in the final.

Micah Walker of Mustang Track Club ran the fastest time in the boys 200 meter prelims in 21.10.