No wins, but they're happy
Callanan, Jones are All-Americans
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Matthew Callanan and Emily Jones are top runners unfamiliar with losing. Both Massachusetts state champions tasted defeat last night at the
Jones, a junior from Bromfield, and Callanan, a recent Mansfield graduate, both were named All-Americans at the meet many consider high school track and field's national championship.
The Syracuse-bound Callanan, 18, came south with a 21-0 record in hurdles finals. After a good start in the 110-meter hurdles final, Callanan fought a headwind to finish fifth in 14.29 seconds. The oft-injured Callanan, who missed the state and national indoor meets because of a severe hamstring injury, said he was just hoping to make the final here. He ran a quick 14.26 in his heat to qualify seventh for the final.
"I wasn't expecting to get into the finals," Callanan said. "Once I got out, I had a good start in the finals and I just went for it. I knew I had a good race going.
"It was really tough indoors. It was a long couple of months there where I couldn't do anything."
Losing at a national championship was just fine, Callanan said.
"I'll take it. I'll take it because this competition is just ridiculous," he said. "I was pretty confident coming in here that I could hang with some of them. But to be in the company of these guys and get fifth, I couldn't ask for a better end to my season."
Jones, 17, the state Division 2 indoor and outdoor 3,200-meter champion, faced the toughest 2-mile field of her career. Running at the front of a tightly packed group of 12, Jones put herself into position to make a move with two laps to go in the eight-lap race. Entering the final curve, Jones made a move on the leaders, catching everyone except the winner, Neely Spence, the Shippensburg, Pa., senior who was second here a year ago. Spence also defeated Jones at last fall's
As she stepped to the podium to receive her silver medal, Jones was all smiles after her first Nike appearance.
"This was an amazing experience because running in Massachusetts, you just don't see the competition that you do at a meet like this," Jones said. "So I was really excited to come out here and get to race against these amazing girls because I knew that they would push me a little more than I was pushed in the state meet."
Jones's runner-up time of 10:22.4 was almost five seconds better than her previous personal best of 10:27.03.
"I really had no idea how I would do just because I haven't raced in a race like this on a track with so many girls who are as fast or faster than I am," she said. "So I just wanted to try to stay with the main pack and then just give it all I had at the end of the race."
While Spence, who won in 10:20.77, will move on to college, Jones hopes to be back next year. "I'm thrilled to come here again," she said. "This was a really fun meet."
Callanan is entered in today's 400 intermediate hurdles, and Jones will run the anchor leg on her team's 4 x 1-mile relay.
