By Robert Elkin
The Millrose Games are traditionally for professional track and field athletes, including Olympians, and contested at Madison Square Garden. Some of the present athletes could even become future Olympians. All the attention is usually focused on the elite crop, who make all the noise. At the same time the meet directors like to throw in the kids and high school, college and open athletes to contest their specialty during the main portion of the meet. These youngsters are the ones who enjoy competing on the Garden track and get a thrill out of running on the same track like past champions, including the likes of Eamon Coghlan, Derrick Adkins, Marcus O’Sullivan, and other stars have done in the past. A number of athletes from South Shore High School ran the 1600 meter relay and not only won the title, but they defended their crown in this event. This race was strictly for schools belonging to the public school system of New York City. South Shore is more noted for its football and track and field programs, with the latter turning in some outstanding performers and teams over past years. Coach Phil Zodda has done a tremendous job with the boys and it has shown in the Millrose Meet at Madison Square Garden over the years. The Flatbush based school proved it once again in the 4 x 400 meter relay for six schools, including four from this borough. The quartet of Sean Troop, who took the lead on the second lap in the 11-lap to mile track, Kemar Clarke, Rodney Campbell, and Shavar Watson, crossed the finish line in a first place and fast time of 3:24.30. Troop ran the first leg in 50.8, followed by Clarke’s 50.2, Campbell’s 50.3, and Watson’s 52.6. They bettered last year’s clocking of 3:29.32. Zodda believes that he has a national class relay team in the making. The boys felt great in defending their title and along with the coach are excited about their performance. All the runners felt relaxed and comfortable with their legs. Troop went out in good position, took it easy and when he was ready made his move into first place. When Clarke took the baton from Troop he was in front and the team never fell behind. Clarke, who won the 55-meter hurdles on the previous week at the Yale Track Classic, also felt relaxed competing at the Millrose Meet, in front of over 15,000 spectators. “I went out there (on the track) and did what my coach told me to do,” he said after the race. “I took the baton from Sean and kept the lead. We had to concentrate running on our lane. We didn’t worry about our competition. Our goal now is to run as fast as we can until the year is over. Meanwhile, Campbell also felt great coming into the race and was experienced, as he also ran on the same track last year. “Defending the title was a challenge for ourselves,” Campbell said, ‘because we had to put the hard work (together) that the coach puts on us. “It’s very tough to run in the Garden with the tight turns. We practice in the school for stuff like this. I’m running for two years at South Shore.” “Watson, our anchor man, enjoyed the race,” Zodda said. “I think he was looking around for his mom as he was running. He’s capable of going much faster. He was in a relaxed mode.” As a team, South Shore didn’t take the lead right away until the second lap, “Troop had the lead when he handed off,” Zodda went on. “We wanted to be in the front and stay out of trouble. For the whole race we expanded our lead. We have an exceptional group of athletes and ran 3:24 on a slow track.” The 100th annual Millrose Games marked Zodda’s 16 representation of coaching South Shore and seventh victory in Millrose competition. South Shore finished ahead of Grady (Andre Wilkinson, Kestor Lewis, Gaby Coulange, Jeremy Rosado), who was timed in 3:30.56, third place finisher Sheepshead Bay (Brian Furr, Donneal Vincent, Kevin Lewis, Ayo Isijola, 3:31.85), and fourth place finisher Transit Tech (Steven McLean, Keston Joby, Michael Vaughn, Elijah Rollick, 3:33.25). Grady improved from last year’s fourth place finish to second. “But South Shore is the strongest team in the city and maybe the strongest team in the country and is very talented,” Grady’s Coach Dave Fonfa said. In another track event but for distaffers, Bishop Loughlin gave Brooklyn its second victory of the evening in the 4 x 400 meter relay for Catholic schools. The quartet of Alexandria Lyles, Saleena Abdul-Rasked, Gemira Climer and Sheina Roberts was timed in 4:03.45 “Winning the race is significant because since we took it three times we were able to retire the trophy and take it home,” Loughlin Coach Jack Darrell said. “Our girls did a fantastic job and Roberts is only a sophomore, who anchored for us.” Competing in a big meet at Madison Square Garden marked a tremendous experience and thrill for all the athletes. “The track is great, and we stayed on to watch all these stars in action.” The high school athletes agreed “In the future I’ll be here as one of these stars,” Rosado said.
