In a showdown between two national champions, Paige Sheppard won a thrilling duel with Braelyn Combe in the girls' 800-meter run on Saturday night at the 58th Arcadia Invitational in California.
Sheppard, a junior at Union Catholic who won the mile at the New Balance National Championships last June, went right to the front and pushed the pace with Combe, a senior from Santiago Corona in California, right on her heels the whole way.
Combe, the Nike Indoor National Champion in the mile last month and the U.S. leader in the 800 this season, came up on Sheppard's shoulder as they two stars pounded their way down the final straight and pulled even with Sheppard as they charged toward the line. Sheppard, who ran 61.04 for the final 400, dug down deep just before the finish and outleaned Combe to win in 2:05.07. Combe was second in 2:05.12. Combe ran a U.S. No. 1 time of 2:04.52 last month.
It was the second huge 800 for Sheppard in the last 24 hours.
On Friday night, she burned a 2:04.33 anchor leg to bring her squad across the line first in the sprint medley relay with a new national record of 3:47.35!!! Sheppard is now a member of five national record relays in her legendary career- the 4x800 indoors and outdoors, the DMR indoors and outdoors and now the outdoor SMR.
There was also lots of sparks flying in the boys' 800 races.
Seniors Keandre Kelly and Ciaran Brosnan of Union Catholic, who ran the last two legs on UC's meet record breaking and NJ No. 3 all-time 4x800 (7:32.78) on Friday night, dropped a pair of hot PR's.
Kelly, running in the Seeded race, finished second in 1:49.70!!! That's No. 11 in NJ history and the second fastest time in Union County history. Brosnan, who ran in the Invitational 800, ran a big negative split of 55.00 to rally strong to finish third in 1:51.84.
The only runner from Union County to run faster than Kelly, who won the 800 at the Outdoor Meet of Champions last June and the Indoor M of C last month, is John Marshall of Plainfield, who ran the NJ record of 1:48.44 in 1980. Could Kelly, who split 54-40/55.30 on Saturday, take down Marshall's state record this season?? After this performance, he certainly showed he has the potential to make a run at it.
