Newland saves day for South Shore at City Champs

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

South Shore and Boys and Girls were running side by side and coming to the final exchange of the boys 4x400 relay, with a trip to state on the line for the winner, and everyone on the fourth floor at The Armory braced for a thrilling finish to the PSAL Indoor Championships.

But the drama of the third leg, with South Shore and B&G swapping the lead and fighting for pole position, faded to afterthought after what happened next.

South Shore's captain, Theordore Westcarr, lost the lead and then regained it in the final 200 meters of his carry. He had a clear path to awaiting anchor Ramone Newland. But they botched the hand off. The baton hit the track and bounced like a fumbled football. 

All of South Shore's hopes seemed totally lost. Boys & Girls' lead grew to 10, 20 meters while Newland instinctively grabbed the loose stick and tore out out the zone. 

 "Ohhh, a rough break!" boomed public address announcer Dennis Kornfield. "A rough break and Boys and Girls is out there by themselves."

Newland had one thought. 

"I got to catch him," Newland recalled. "My mind was telling me I couldn't do it. But who says? Tell me I can't, and I will."

Newland knew he was in a bad position but he went for it anyway. He chopped Boys and Girls' lead down to something manageable in the first 200 meters. Then, on the backstretch, he continued to pull closer, to five meters. Around the final corner Newland wasn't close enough to make his pass but he eliminated the gap and gave himself a chance with the final home straight. 

As the crowd cheered above, Newland inched into the lead a few meters before the finish line. 

South Shore 3:23.84. Boys and Girls 3:23.91.

"Get close to him," Newland remembered telling himself. "I know that last 50 is going to be hard. Catch him on the line."

It was a busy day for Newland, who won the 55-meter dash in 6.46 seconds and also ran a leg on the 4x200 relay that put US#3 1:28.15 on the board (also the third fastest in PSAL history). 

McKee/Staten Island Tech, thanks to big points in the horizontal jumps, pulled out the team championship with 52.50 points to South Shore's 50. That made history. It was McKee's first PSAL indoor title and the first for a school from Staten Island since 1989.

In the girls meet, Medgar Evers won the team title with 66 points while Paul Robeson was second with 62. 

Senior Shayla Broughton was key to Medgar Evers' success, scoring 18 points by herself with wins in the long jump (18-3.75) and high jump (5-0) and second place in the 55 hurdles (8.01 seconds).

Paul Robeson, hoping to pry the city title away for the first time, got dominant wins in the 4x200 (1:40.59) and 4x400 (US#3 3:48.50).

Benajmin Cardozo's Paris Peoples won an exciting girls 600 meters at the line, 1:33.85 to Latoya Stewart's 1:33.88. 

In the girls 55, Benjamin Cardozo's D'Jai Baker won it with 7.16 seconds. In the 300 meters, Paul Robeson's Amanda Crawford ran US#2 38.31 for the win. Baker was second in 39.75.

In the boys 600, Kemarni Mighty of Clara Barton edged Boys and Girls' Shavanes Robinson 1:20.48 to 1:20.57.