Penn Wood’s Nmah changes shoes and comes away with gold
THORNBURY — Penn Wood’s James Nmah came off the track in pain following his leg of the 4 x 200-meter relay at the Delaware County indoor track and field championships Wednesday night.
“My feet were hurting,” the junior sprinter said.
Nmah wasn’t injured. The problem was with his footwear.
“He was wearing the wrong shoes,” Penn Wood assistant coach Elmore Hunter said.
Penn Wood won the race despite that equipment malfunction on Nmah’s part. He quickly resolved the situation by borrowing a pair of shoes from sophomore teammate Christian Priva, although he could have gone to just about any of his teammates.
“We all wear the same size,” Nmah said.
Nmah came back and won the 200 (23.57) and ran the second leg of Penn Wood’s winning 4 x 400-meter relay squad (3:31.98) without pain. His performance capped a big day for the Patriots.
Jordin Jones was first and Tayvon Williams was third in the long jump. Timmy Odunjo, Williams and Jones took second, third and sixth, respectively, in the triple jump. Davon Battle was second in the 800. Madda Ngaima took fourth in the 55 hurdles and the Patriots were second in the 4 x 800 and fifth in the distance medley relay.
“It made a big difference,” Nmah said of the shoe change. “The first shoes I was wearing were flats. It’s the shoes we warmed up in and they had no grip on it. I was sliding off the track, but I just ran through it.”
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Larry Coaxum did not take it easy Wednesday at Glen Mills. The senior from Garnet Valley didn’t go through the motions, either.
His effort was somewhere in the middle, which was understandable. He was coming off a performance in which he set personal bests in the long jump, triple jump and 55-meter dash at the Ocean Breeze Invitational last Saturday in Staten Island, N.Y. And with the Jaguars entered into another meet Saturday at Lehigh, Coaxum wanted to stay as fresh as possible.
He still came away with a gold medal in the triple jump (43-11¼) and a silver medal in the long jump (20-5¾).
“I knew coming in that I was going to pull out after my second jump in the triple jump and in the long jump I was just trying not to hurt myself,” Coaxum said. “It’s more of a gym surface and we didn’t have our spikes on, so it’s not as much protection for our feet and I had a foot injury (bruised heel) last year because I jump too much.”
Coaxum’s effort was part of a solid team performance for the Jaguars. Chandler Koehler won the 55-meter dash and was sixth in the 200. Chris Rudawsky and Eric Albright placed first and third, respectively, in the 800. They also were on the winning DMR along with Garrett and Josh Shoemaker. Nicholas Ha tied for fifth in the high jump.
Sean Garrett may have turned in the most impressive performance for the Jags. He ran the 1,600-meter leg of Garnet Valley’s winning distance medley relay team and came back three events later to take fourth in the mile.
“It was a workout day, anyway,” Garrett said. “I’ve never done that before. I feel pretty good, a little tired, but pretty good.”
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Radnor’s Doug Rosin had to fight off teammate Owen Leonard, which was not a surprise to Rosin.
“Owen is a monster in practice,” Rosin said. “We joke that he has the highest practice talent on our team. We push each other all the time in practice.”
That was evident in the mile. Rosin edged Leonard by .63 seconds, while Owen Maier of Episcopal Academy was more than two seconds behind the pair from Radnor.
“I knew he would be there,” Rosin said of Leonard. “He always wants to beat me and I want to beat him.”
Rosin raised his arms in triumph as he crossed the finish line.
“I was thinking as I crossed the finish line, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m the Delaware County champion,” Rosin said. “I’ve been coming to this meet since I was a freshman. I ran the freshman mile and to come from that and be the Delaware County champion in the mile is really exciting.”
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Chester’s Malachi Langley was the only repeat champion. He successfully defended his title in the 400.
Other individual champions were Strath Haven’s Quinn Vandellos (55 hurdles), Aidan Doherty of Archbishop Carroll (3,000), Petey Lemmon of The Haverford School (shot put), Episcopal Academy’s Peter Lim (pole vault) and Penncrest’s Kevin Mills with a personal best jump of 6-0 to win the high jump. The Haverford School won the 4 x 800.
Paul Morgan of Bonner & Prendergast had an interesting experience in the 4 x 200 relay. His right shoe flew off shortly after he received the baton from Kyle Love, but that did not prevent Morgan from finishing his leg of the race.
