DeMatha and South Shore pushed hard right away, ninth-grader Taylor Sykes bringing DeMatha in 1^st at the exchange in 48.9, Sean Troop right on his shoulder at 49.3. Poly was back at 50.3 by Joey Hughes and straining to get into the race.

DeMatha and SS kept pushing: Kemar Clarke, the hurdle champion, handed off just ahead with a great 48.9 2^nd leg; Chad Rogers split 49.5, and Poly, despite a 49.8 from Isaiah Green, lost more ground.

Motor City, Lexington and Monmouth were running their own secondary race.

The third-leg runners knew what was coming: Nellum. DeMatha and South Shore needed to give their own anchors as much room as they could. Shavar Watson split 50.3 for South Shore, Travis McKinnon 49.7 for DeMatha as the Marylanders took the lead, but Poly made up a little ground when Evant Orange ran 49.5.

Nellum gave ground right away and was at least 10 to 15 yards back at the bell. He hit another gear but around the last turn nearly ran up the back of Rodney Campbell, South Shore’s anchor, stumbled and lost most of his momentum.

He regrouped just in time, made one more challenge, and much as Sean Suber tried down the straightaway, the DeMatha anchor runner could not hold off Nellum. On his way by, 15 yards from the finish, Nellum looked over in celebration.

Poly’s winning time of 3:16.28 was of course national leader for the season, 5^th-fastest ever, and the fastest this legendary program has run indoors over the years. DeMatha ran 3:16.48, just a bit slower than the 3:16.39 it ran a year ago, when it also took 2^nd in this meet, to Transit Tech.

South Shore faded to 3:17.85; Rodney Campbell anchored in 49.4. Motor City was 4^th in 3:19.27, Lexington 5^th in 3:19.68 and Monmouth 6^th in 3:20.70. Paschal ran 47.7 on the anchor for Lexington.

GIRLS

All the times Fort Bench Marshall (Missouri City, Texas) has tried to win this race, they could never defeat Speed City (Long Beach Poly). Four years in a row the great Brandi Cross tried to win it for Marshall, and four years they lost. This, finally, was the year, as Marshall blew it open with a 55.9 leadoff and never looked back, splitting 56.1-57.7-56.7 to run 3:46.36. The anchor was Candyce Cross, Brandi’s younger sister.

Poly got in a hole and couldn’t come back, running 59.2-54.5-59.8-55.7 for 3:49.14. Boys & Girls (Brooklyn) wound up 2^nd, running 3:47.57 (57.2-57.2-58.6-54.6). Colonie (NY) was 4^th in 3:52.78. Bishop Loughlin (Brooklyn) won the unseeded race in 3:54.12.