O’Bryant miler Dykens romps
Sean Dykens couldn’t have picked a better time to round into the best shape of his young life. And with his sights set on next Wednesday’s Division 3 indoor track championships, the O’Bryant distance ace with the smooth stride had one last test in yesterday’s Boston City League track championships at the Reggie Lewis Center.
The junior took the lead at the gun and left the field behind as he chopped two seconds off his personal best to win the mile in 4 minutes, 53.73 seconds. Jordan Meija of East Boston took second in 4:56.06. Dykens made it a clean sweep with his 10:50.71 win in the 2 mile.
Shortly after his victory, Dykens got the news from a meet official he was invited to compete in the BAA’s Scholastic Invitational Mile on April 15, two days before the 121st running of the Boston Marathon.
“My training’s going very well,” Dykens said. “I’m doing a lot of speed workouts and not too much distance. I’m doing mostly 400 and 800 repeats. I do one long run maybe that’s about five miles.”
East Boston swept the top two places in the 1,000 meters and 55 hurdles to lead the Jets to the team title with 107 points. Micah Huntley clocked a 2:47.98 for the 1,000 win with Elvis Navarro almost six seconds back in 2:53.26. Niles Nedd won the hurdles in 8.29 with Navarro close behind.
In the girls competition, Latin Academy didn’t have any individual winners, but put up four secondplace finishes to seal the team title with 100 points. O’Bryant (91) was second with Snowden (28) third.
Latin Academy’s Lia Van der Linde, Danielah Sampson, Ahria Ilyas and Haley McLaughlin teamed up for second in the 4 x 200 in 2:00.23, two seconds behind New Mission’s winning 1:58.23.
Snowden’s Sarah Lawton won the 1,000 (in 3:23.45) and O’Bryant’s Katherine Keating took the mile (6:06). Keating’s teammate, Meryl Bantefa, ran a quick 43.41 for an easy win in the 300 and then won the 600.