The Villa Duchesne Saints girls team has a terrific trio of athletes in senior Cydney Ross and juniors Lauren Hollingsworth and Briana Isom-Brummer. The three girls displayed tremendous individual brilliance in leading the Saints to the Metro Women’s Athletic Association championship last week at John Burroughs.
Ross, Hollingsworth and Isom-Brummer combined to score 104 of the Saints’ 106 points in winning the championship. They combined to win eight individual events and two second-place finishes.
Ross finished first in the 400-meter dash and the 800- and 1,600-meter runs. Hollingsworth won the 100, 200 and the long jump while finishing second to Ross in the 400. Isom-Brummer swept the 100-meter high hurdles, the 300-meter low hurdles while finishing second in the long jump and high jump.
All three athletes are capable of doing a lot of damage in the Class 3 postseason state series, which will begin in the middle of May. They have brought home several all-state medals from the state championships as well as achieving All-American status for their success in summer track competition as well.
At the 2007 state championships, Ross finished second in the 800 and sixth in the 1,600, Hollingsworth finished third in the 100 and 200 while Isom-Brummer finished eighth in the 300-meter low hurdles.
Precious victories
Area girls put on a show last weekend at the Kansas Relays in Lawrence, Kan. Crystal City junior Precious Selmon enjoyed an excellent all-around performance. Selmon finished first in the 100-meter high hurdles in 14.28 seconds, second in the long jump with a leap of 19 feet, third in the 300-meter low hurdles and seventh in the 100. McCluer South-Berkeley got a first and second place finish from Alishea Usery and Kianna Ruff in the 400. Usery set a new meet record time of 54.61. The Bulldogs also won the 4×100, 4×400-meter relay in 3 minutes 49.12 seconds and the 4×880-yard relay. Ladue’’ girls finished first in the sprint-medley relay and second in the 4×400.
Meets meet rains
The bad weather conditions played havoc with several of the area’s top meets last weekend. The Al Joyner Classic at East St. Louis went on as planned, but several teams went home after a long weather delay, including defending Class AA state-champion Cahokia. The host Flyers dominated the meet in winning the team title with 125 points. Individual winners for the Flyers were Javaughn Tabbs (100, 200), Kraig Appleton (110-meter high hurdles), Ryan Miller (300-meter intermediate hurdles) and Evan Johnson (400).
Also in the Metro East, Belleville East has one of the area’s top athletes in senior Roger Jones, who is an excellent sprinter and jumper. Jones led the Lancers to the championship of the Belleville City meet last week at Belleville West. Jones won the 200 in a time of 21.6 seconds and the long jump with a leap of 22 feet 3 inches.
The Fred Lyon Invitational at Parkway North produced two double-winners last Friday. Jeremy Bankston of Parkway North swept the 110-high and 300-meter intermediate hurdles while Jordan Riley of Oakville won the 100 and 200.
This weekend
The Marion Freeman Clayton Invitational will be held this weekend. It is annually one of the top boys meets of the season. The prelims for the large schools (Orange Division) will be held this afternoon. The finals for both the Orange and Blue (Small Schools) Divisions will be held on Saturday. The meet will begin at 9 a.m. Metro-east powers Cahokia and East St. Louis will come over to take on some of the best on the Missouri side of the river.
Parkway South will host two big meets this week as well. The Patriot Classic is an all-boys meet which will be held on Thursday and Friday, beginning at 4 p.m. both days. On Saturday, several of the area’s top girls teams will venture to South to compete in the Victoria Reeves Invitational, which begins at 9 a.m.
Price is right
Normandy High standout Darwin Price will don the cover of Rise Magazine, a national high school sports publication. Price is the defending Missouri Class 4 state champion in the 800 and state runner-up in the 1,600. He is also one of the nation’s top amateur boxers and an Olympic hopeful in 2012. He signed a letter of intent to attend Grambling State last week. At Saturday’s Dale Collier Invitational at Kirkwood, Price swept both events and set new meet records in the process.
