Alleyne able to oust Cocks at stadium

After ruling the roost for the past five years, Cocks House (Red) was relegated to second to allow Alleyne House the title and a year’s worth of bragging rights when Princess Margaret Secondary held their annual Inter-House Sports yesterday. Under sunny skies at the National Stadium, Alleyne strode to victory by 45 points over the defending champions with 766 to round out a strong day at the track.

Cocks House came home with 721 to leave Greenhalgh (Green) and Peebles (Purple) to fight for third. When the dust settled at the end of it all, Greenhalgh was good for 597, just 20 points ahead of Peebles who racked up 577.

After coming in 100 points behind Cocks in 2016, Alleyne was helped to the switch by Raul Clarke, who brought home the Victor Ludorum title. He gave his team a whopping 69 points, which included first-place finishes in the 100-metre and 400-metre, and a third place in the 200-metre, all in Under-15 events yesterday.

Clarke was not alone as Alleyne picked up three other divisions to take them to their total. At Under-17, Antone Mayers (69) was second to Cocks’ Dario Alleyne in the 400-metre. Alleyne clocked a record time of 52.30 seconds to knock down 54.52 put up by Giovanni Phillips in 2012. Mayers put up 56.91. Mayers was beat by Alleyne again and another when he stepped up for the 200-metre. Alleyne had 22.75 seconds, while Greenhalgh’s Terrico Bruce came home in 23.69 ahead of Mayers’ 24.98.

Alleyne House almost took a clean sweep of the boys as Jacobi Redman took the other boys’ title in Under-13. He got his name in the record books in his first year at the institution with 12.70 in the 100-metre – the old mark was 13.05 set in 1990 by Damien Sealy. He also took wins in the 400-metre and 200-metre to assist in seeing him to 40 points.

Alleyne got in on the action in the girls with Under-15’s Tiffany Thompson. She had 32 points from a win in the 400-metre and a third place in the 200-metre behind Makeba Prince of Cocks (29.12) and Karimah Griffith of Peebles (29.12) with a time of 29.88 seconds.

Cocks had some help to their second place and Victrix Ludorum Shamaya Scott had a bit to do with it. She was, however, forced to share the title with Andisa Puckerin of Peebles, who did the double as the Under-20 Girls’ champion. With both girls chipping in 46 for their respective teams, Scott won the 100 and 200, while finishing third in the 400-metre behind Kera Phillips, also of Cocks and Tiffany Mullin of Alleyne.

Puckerin was consistent on the track and finished second in all her events yesterday. She was beaten to the line by Makayla Springer of Cocks in the 100- and 200-metre events and by Marissa Grimes of Peebles in the 400.

The Under-20 Boys’ champion came from Greenhalgh and Devon Stoute was good for 49 points after a solid day at the stadium. Stoute clocked 10.82 seconds for a new record in the 100-metre. He also put up a new mark in the 200-metre (22.38) to knock down his second Dario McCollin record of the day. He gave way to Donnel Sylvester in the 400-metre to finish second. Sylvester, however, clocked 52.10 for a new record as well.

Danica Gittens made her mark in the Under-13 Girls’ as she racked up 42 points for Peebles. The 12-year-old was on fire as she blanked a 1994 record by Regina Merritt in the 100-metre with a time of 13.00 to win the event. She also won the 400-metre before shattering another mark in the 200-metre. This time, it was Kelly Ann Neptune’s 1995 record, which she replaced with 28.04 seconds.