Metro Track | O'Dea boys take 10th straight title

O'Dea's hammerlock on the Metro League boys track championship now has reached 10 years.

This time, the Irish retained the trophy with balance and depth. They won only three events -- Tony Melonson in the high jump at 6 feet 1, John Amundsen in the 300-meter hurdles in 41.79 seconds, Donald Lisowski in the 400 meters in 50.93 seconds -- but collected placement points like Easter eggs. They finished with 130 points. Seattle Prep was second with 88 points.

Abdi Hassan (1519) from Nathan Hale

Holy Names, which got a sizzling 14.38 performance by three-time Class 3A state champion Devin Brooks in the 100 hurdles, won the girls title for a fifth straight year. The Cougars scored 124 points and Bishop Blanchet was second with 99 in the meet at Southwest Athletic Complex.

A big question for the Sea-King District meet against KingCo 3A schools next Wednesday and Friday at the same site will be the condition of Nathan Hale 1,600 star Abdi Hassan.

The refugee from Somalia won the Metro 1,600 Wednesday in 4:17.32 and the 800 Friday in 1:55.21. However, in the day's final event, the 1,600 relay, he suffered an injury to his right hamstring.

"I almost had to stop," he said after receiving treatment after the race.

"I think I'll be OK," said Hassan, the defending state champion at 1,600 and undefeated in the event.

Underclassmen from Rainier Beach and West Seattle dominated the sprints.

Charnay Combs, who won the state championship in the girls 100 as a freshman last year, won the 100 Friday in 12.16 and the 200 in 25.28. She also ran on two winning relays, the 400 and 800, and when asked for her favorite event she replied, "I like the relays."

Markeem Adams, a West Seattle freshman, won the boys 100 in 10.91 and the 200 in 22.33.

Cleveland sophomore Olivia Ward completed a double in horizontal jumps by winning the triple jump for the second straight year, this time at 38-10 ½, the state's best mark. She had won the long jump Wednesday at 17-1 ½.

Chief Sealth senior Melvin Jones, one of the best basketball guards in the Metro League, showed his athleticism by winning the 110 hurdles in 15.11 and the long jump at 21-1.

Washington-bound Seattle Prep senior Max O'Donoghue-McDonald won the 3,200 in 9:08.42, winning by 34 seconds. He ran a sizzling 8:59.73 at the Shoreline Invitational last month when he was pressed the entire race and didn't have to deal with a brisk northerly wind.

O'Donoghue-McDonald was good Friday but superb in his first Metro championship event of this school year when he broke the Lower Woodland cross-country record with a 15:22 clocking. He said he considers that to be his No. 1 accomplishment.

"That's a hallowed course," the two-time state cross-country champion said.

Source: Seattle Times, May 12, 2007