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5/15/07-Track
Warriors beat Eaglets to remain unbeaten in CHSL
Led by a sweep in the 3,200-meter race Brother Rice tops OLSM
By MARVIN GOODWIN Of The Oakland Press
BIRMINGHAM--Orchard Lake St. Mary's hung tough with Birmingham Brother Rice Monday in a battle of unbeaten Catholic League track powers at Brother Rice High.
That is until the Warriors hit the Eaglets with a salvo of stamina. Rice swept the first three places in the 3,200-meter run, clinching the victory as they fended off St. Mary's 70-58 to stay unbeaten in Catholic League duals. Rice is 5-0 and St. Mary's is 4-1.
Mike Murphy, Anthony Wile and Sean Clifford took the first through third places in the event, gathering all the points they needed to clinch the victory.
St. Mary's Chas Irmen, who was third in the 1,600 and second in the 800 after running a leg on the winning 3,200 relay, attempted to break up the Warrior trio in the 3,200. But his fatigued legs failed him and he dropped out.
"I tried to give it a shot, because we needed a point," said Irmen, who joined Sergei May, Pat Carroll and Tayler Peruski on the winning 3,200 relay.
"In the end, we knew we had to have a perfect meet to beat Brother Rice and knew we were a little soft in the two mile," St. Mary's coach Mark LeFevre said. "(But) I'm extremely proud, the gave 100 percent effort . . . we gave everything we had (and) there's nothing left on the track."
Indeed, St. Mary's Taurian Washington, after winning the 100 and running legs on the victorious 400 and 800 relays, called on all his reserves to run down quick-starting Will Danko of Brother Rice to win the 200 in 22.4. Danko, who clocked 11.1 to Washington's 11-flat in the 100, rocketed out of the blocks around the curve with a sizeable lead in the 200. But the long-striding Washington reeled him in, stopping the clock at 22.4--Danko ran 22.5--then sank to the track in exhaustion.
"I ran a couple more races than he did," Washington said. "I just stuck in through and gave it my all."
Brother Rice, with Imani Duperry (high jump), Caulton Ray (long jump), Rick Smith (shot put) and Brian Wing (discus) each scoring victories, scored heavily in the field events.\
St. Mary's sprinters--Peruski also won the 400 and Justin Siller edged Duperry in the 110 hurdles--kept the Eaglets close.
But the Warriors were deeper in the distances. Wile also won the 1,600 run (4:38.4) and Murphy was second (4:39.7).
"It felt pretty good," said Wile about the Warriors finishing unbeaten in league duals. "It's the first time we've done it since I've been here so I'm happy to do it my senior year."
Rice coach Bob Stark was cautious entering the season, not knowing what to expect from his charges. But the Warriors have raised his eyebrows in the last few weeks, including a convincing victory at the Oxford Invitational last weekend.
"We've just gotten better, better and better every week," he said, "just hard working kids with constant improvement."
Nick Thomas won the 800, running virtually alone the entire race as he finished in 2:01.6, finishing some six seconds ahead of Irmen.
"It was a very close meet," Stark said. "The score didn't indicate how close it was. Either team could've won it."
LeFevre is still satisfied with the Eaglets' effort and feels there's more to come.
"Actually, it's been a real good season," he said. "It's the first time we've beaten U of D and first time we've beaten Catholic Central. We have extremely high hopes for Catholic League, regionals and Oakland County. We've been kind of under the radar for the season."
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