Powers, Johnson score gold at Suffern's Mountie Madness track meet
Haldane's Owen Powers, Nyack's Jayda Johnson and Sleepy Hollow's Gilbert Onwe were amount the winners hitting personal-best marks at Mountie Madness.
SUFFERN — Fifty schools participated Thursday in Suffern's annual Mountie Madness track and field invitational, which served as a reminder Section 1 doesn't have a patent on talent. It's not that area athletes were shut out of gold medals. The meet, for instance, ended with host Suffern winning the girls 4x400-meter relay and Section 1 athletes recorded 15 first-place finishes.
But three of four relays went to non-Section 1 teams and some of the meet's biggest moments — a 5-9 girls high jump and 19-4. 5 girls long jump, included — also belonged to athletes from outside the immediate area. Still, Mountie Madness proved huge for some locals, including Haldane's Owen Powers.
The senior, who'll compete for Brandeis University next year, knew, based on entry times, he'd be the favorite in the boys 3,000-meter steeplechase. But that, as he saw it, was going to be the problem — a lack of close competition. As it was, his closest competition finished more than half a minute behind him.
But motivated in part by a large cheering section, Powers knocked more than 31 seconds off his previous personal-best time to finish in 9:43. 86, the U. S.
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