Penn Relays

Broadneck's premier distance runner, Matthew Centrowitz, and North Harford's three-sport standout, Corey Donohoe, were named The Sun's male and female Athletes of the Year at the 41st awards ceremony held at M&T Bank Stadium yesterday. Donohoe, who had no idea she would win, was introduced first and thanked her parents and coaches. The North Carolina-bound lacrosse player is featured in today's All-Metro section as the girls lacrosse Player of the Year. The first girl from Harford County to receive the award in 29 years (Bel Air's Karen Stout was the first girl Athlete of the Year in 1978)

Asenior middle distance runner, Randallstown's Phoenix Smith started running late, but she has developed quickly and has experimented with other events, including the hurdles. She ran the first leg on the Rams team that won its 1,600-meter relay at the Penn Relays last month. Smith has drawn interest from several colleges on the East Coast, including Temple and Connecticut. However, she will trade a potential track scholarship for culinary arts school at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island.

Is Matthew Centrowitz the best schoolboy distance runner Maryland has ever seen? A similar discussion over a basketball or baseball phenom would stall under sketchy arguments that can never be quantified, but the Broadneck High senior operates in a realm ruled by the stopwatch. The objective data in his favor make a convincing argument - not that it matters to Centrowitz, who's more focused on reaching an international competition in South America than a state meet record. Centrowitz made history April 27 at the 113th running of the Penn Relays, where he lowered the meet record in the boys mile to 4 minutes, 8.38 seconds, believed to be the fastest ever by a Maryland runner in scholastic competition.

Herbert Nicholls, a senior from the Washington suburbs, is about to earn a degree in community health. Reggie Carter, a freshman from Philadelphia, plans to major in business management. Both Morgan State sprinters, however, are minoring in their sport's history. They'll be serious players in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference track and field championships, which began yesterday and continue through tomorrow, at Hughes Stadium. There may be no stopping Norfolk State, which is poised to repeat an unprecedented sweep of the cross country, indoor track and outdoor titles.

PHILADELPHIA -- James Carter, a native Baltimorean now running for Hampton (Va.) University, won the Penn Relays 400-meter hurdles in 50.23 yesterday morning at Franklin Field.Carter essentially blew away the field; the second-place finisher's time was 51.04.Not bad considering the former Mervo standout was up half the night nervously waiting."I had to adjust to going to sleep early and getting up early," said Carter, who ranked this with the Texas Relays as his biggest victories. "Then I kept waking up periodically."

If Ron Neal were to make an instructional video on how to run the hurdles, he'd use Woodlawn senior specialist Joel Brown."Joel is flexible, uses his arms well between the hurdles, and when he goes over, he's not in the air that long," said Neal, an assistant coach at Mervo who coaches Brown with Ed Waters' track club during the summer."

Thema Napier of Long Reach finished fifth in the 400-meter hurdles in 62.2 seconds and earned a medal at the 104th Penn Relays last Friday and Saturday.Howard County record-holder Andrew Long of Oakland Mills finished eighth in the shot put with a throw of 53 feet, 10 inches. The winning toss was 66-7.More than 90,000 people attended the three-day event, a record. A total of 818 high schools, including seven county schools, participated from as far away as Jamaica and California.Centennial stays aliveNo.

Thema Napier of Long Reach signed a letter of intent for a full track scholarship to the University of Maryland Monday.Napier, who recently finished fifth in the 400-meter hurdles at the Penn Relays, will be one of the featured athletes when the Howard County track championships are held today and tomorrow at River Hill High.Field events start at 2: 30 p.m. and running events at 3 p.m. Admission is $4 per day.She will be trying to break Nyjila Littlejohn's county record of 43.2 seconds in the 300 hurdles.

PHILADELPHIA -- If there was ever a doubt before yesterday, there isn't anymore. Yes, Mount St. Mary's has climbed among )) the elite in the college track world."

PHILADELPHIA -- Mount St. Mary's didn't win anything in yesterday's climax of the 102nd Penn Relays at Franklin Field, but the athletes from the little school in Emmitsburg got a chance to see how the other half lives.And they think it can only help them down the road."I had butterflies at first," said freshman leadoff man Jamal Simms, after Mike Merritt's 4 x 200 relay team settled for sixth place in the prestigious Championship of America Relay, with a school record 1: 25.99, well behind winner Norfolk State.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Meade Mustangs were in exclusive company. They had reached the final of the boys scholastic "Championship of America" 1,600-meter relay with a sizzling time of 3 minutes, 14.68 seconds in the morning session of yesterday's concluding day of the 114th Penn Relays. Just two other American teams - Bethel of Virginia and Long Beach Poly of California - had been fast enough to join the four Jamaican squads and one from the Bahamas in the final. But the Mustangs weren't about to cruise home on their laurels.

PHILADELPHIA -- Everything's clicking for Joel Brown. The Woodlawn High and Ohio State University graduate blazed a 13.21-second split, leading the USA Blue team to a "world best-ever" performance of 53.31 seconds in the Olympic Development 480-yard shuttle high hurdles relay yesterday at the 114th Penn Relays, and now turns his attention to the individual high hurdles event on today's concluding program. "This definitely ranks right up there with all the good things I've done in track over the years," Brown said.

PHILADELPHIA -- Lauren Centrowitz has done it all in her first three years at Stanford University. The Cardinal junior distance runner from Broadneck is a five-time NCAA All-American, a member of three NCAA gold-medal cross country teams, and a two-time Penn Relays titlist. But her pursuit of another crown in the distance medley at the 114th edition of the Penn Relays yesterday at Franklin Field wasn't to be. "I ran well but Nicole Edwards [anchoring for Michigan] and Sarah Bowman [of Tennessee]

Broadneck's premier distance runner, Matthew Centrowitz, and North Harford's three-sport standout, Corey Donohoe, were named The Sun's male and female Athletes of the Year at the 41st awards ceremony held at M&T Bank Stadium yesterday. Donohoe, who had no idea she would win, was introduced first and thanked her parents and coaches. The North Carolina-bound lacrosse player is featured in today's All-Metro section as the girls lacrosse Player of the Year. The first girl from Harford County to receive the award in 29 years (Bel Air's Karen Stout was the first girl Athlete of the Year in 1978)

Asenior middle distance runner, Randallstown's Phoenix Smith started running late, but she has developed quickly and has experimented with other events, including the hurdles. She ran the first leg on the Rams team that won its 1,600-meter relay at the Penn Relays last month. Smith has drawn interest from several colleges on the East Coast, including Temple and Connecticut. However, she will trade a potential track scholarship for culinary arts school at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island.

Is Matthew Centrowitz the best schoolboy distance runner Maryland has ever seen? A similar discussion over a basketball or baseball phenom would stall under sketchy arguments that can never be quantified, but the Broadneck High senior operates in a realm ruled by the stopwatch. The objective data in his favor make a convincing argument - not that it matters to Centrowitz, who's more focused on reaching an international competition in South America than a state meet record. Centrowitz made history April 27 at the 113th running of the Penn Relays, where he lowered the meet record in the boys mile to 4 minutes, 8.38 seconds, believed to be the fastest ever by a Maryland runner in scholastic competition.

Herbert Nicholls, a senior from the Washington suburbs, is about to earn a degree in community health. Reggie Carter, a freshman from Philadelphia, plans to major in business management. Both Morgan State sprinters, however, are minoring in their sport's history. They'll be serious players in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference track and field championships, which began yesterday and continue through tomorrow, at Hughes Stadium. There may be no stopping Norfolk State, which is poised to repeat an unprecedented sweep of the cross country, indoor track and outdoor titles.

Seton Keough's Erin Brooks found just the right time to set a personal record - at last week's Penn Relays. The junior jumped 39 feet, 5 inches to finish second in a field of 17 in the high school girls triple jump championship at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. She was the top finisher from the United States behind Kimberly Williams of Jamaica, who won the event with a jump of 42-4 1/4 . Brooks, a two-time All-Metro selection, jumped over 39 feet on her first jump, Gators coach Jim Lancaster said, and that set her at ease.

PHILADELPHIA -- It took 35 years for the Penn Relays high school mile record - by Gordon Oliver of Bethesda-Chevy Chase - to be erased and it took another Marylander to do it. Broadneck senior Matthew Centrowitz took the Penn mile best down to 4 minutes, 8.38 seconds with a stirring 60-second final lap that separated him from a tough, talented field. Oilver had run 4:08.7 in 1972. "There was a lot of pushing, bumping up front," said the University of Oregon-bound Centrowitz, a two-time All-Metro Runner of the Year in cross country and last spring's All-Metro Performer of the Year in track and field.

PERFORMER OF THE YEAR Matthew Centrowitz Broadneck The high school season may have ended, but Centrowitz's season continues. With his focus on the Nike Outdoor Nationals later this month in North Carolina, the junior downplayed any notion of taking a respite from training. "I don't think there's time for a break," Centrowitz said several minutes after capturing the Class 4A state crown in the 3,200 last month. "I can take a break later in the summer. I'm not completely happy yet." That motivation to get better is what sets Centrowitz apart from other area track athletes and landed him this spring's Performer of the Year award.