OHSAA track: St. Vincent-St. Mary wins Division II boys championship
Joe Maxse, The Plain Dealer, June 08, 2013
Parris Campbell of St. Vincent-St. Mary edges Orange's Will Carter at the finish of the 4x100 relay on Saturday at the Division II state track meet in Columbus. - (Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer)
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Parris Campbell was feeling it.
The St. Vincent-St. Mary junior made sure he was in sprint mode early in the morning and it paid huge dividends Saturday afternoon as the Irish won the Division II state boys track championship at Ohio State's Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Keyed by two furious pushes from Campbell's anchor slot, SVSM won both sprint relays in stirring fashion on its way to putting up 49 points.
Campbell threw in a second-place finish in the 100-meter dash and would have gone after the 200 later in the day. But he was scratched from that one late Friday afternoon when he had recurring swelling in his right knee.
That's what had the Ohio State football recruit running around his hotel room at 7:30 a.m.
"I did a little jog," said Campbell, who ran the final leg on the 4x200 to help set a division record time of 1:28.87. "It's happened before and I was just putting ice on it. I knew I'd be fine."
The race of the day occurred when SVSM used its quartet of Jordan Sensabaugh, Jarel Wooldridge, Fransohn Bickley and Campbell to go against Orange's top-ranked 4x100 team of Malcolm Harris, Colton Kaufman, John Flynn and standout Will Carter.
It was pure speed down the lane between Campbell and Carter, with the SVSM runner getting the lean in 42.26 seconds. Carter's time was 42.28.
"All I was thinking was first place, first place, first place," said Campbell. "I had no doubt in my mind. This is my future home. I had to put on a good show."