Friday's Stories From New Balance Nationals

New Balance Nationals Outdoor 2015
MileSplit Staff

Western Branch Spoils Union Catholic & McLaughlin's Plans For A Swedish Sweep

A few hours before the thunder and lightning put a two-hour delay into the action at Irwin Belk Track, a few teams stormed to a couple of meet-record times in the Swedish Medley Relay at the New Balance Nationals.

Behind a blazing 51.28 400m split from anchor Sydney McLaughlin, Union Catholic (NJ) established a girls' mark of 2 minutes, 8.88 seconds. Finishing second was South Dade (FL) at 2:08.93. Both squads were under the existing record of 2:08.98 by Wakefield-Raleigh (NC) in 2013.

McLaughlin's older brother Taylor, tried to make it a clean sweep for the New Jersey school in the boys' race. But his 45.39 400m split came up short against a talented Western Branch foursome that finished with a winning time of 1:52.64, a time that breaks the old mark of 1:53.43, set by the same Virginia school in 2013. Union Catholic secured second at 1:53.93.

"We knew we had a decent team that could challenge for first place," said Western Branch head coach Claude Toukene. "It was only a matter of each one putting together what they had to do. Fortunately everything worked to perfection."

According to Toukene, the plan was to build a big enough cushion to offset the speed of McLaughlin, who last year anchored his squad to victory with a quick 46-second leg.

"We knew we had to get away from them," said the coach. "By the time our last guy got the baton we were supposed to be four seconds ahead of them, and everything worked to perfection."

Junior Akinshe Hill, a sprinter with 11-second speed for the 100m dash, led off with a strong opening leg. He handed off to senior Stephan Arjoon, who split 21-seconds flat for his 200m leg. A 33-second 300m leg from sophomore Micaiah Harris built up just enough cushion for senior Tyson Robinson to bring it home. Robinson finished his one-lapper at 47.08.

"We came off the bus and we were all tired," Arjoon said. "We came here and we warmed up and did all that good stuff. We came to break our record, and we finally did."