Central Park Track Club and Norfolk Real Deal Defend Titles at Club Championships

7/9/2011 New York, N.Y. – Like last year, this year’s USATF National Club Track & Field Championships in New York, N.Y finished in high drama with the defending champions each eking out victories again. 

At last year’s meet in San Francisco, Norfolk Real Deal (Virginia) captured the women’s team title while Central Park Track Club New Balance (Metropolitan/New York) took home the men’s title. Both east coast teams were able to stay closer to home this year and successfully defend their titles at Ichan Stadium in Manhattan.  Central Park Track Club used a balanced effort by both its men’s and women’s squads to also capture the combined team title (men’s and women’s scores combined).

In the men's competition, the team title came down to the last event of the meet, the 4x400m relay, as Central Park led Shore Athletic Club (New Jersey) by a mere 1/2 point. The first three legs were a back and forth battle as both teams handed off in unison on the last exchange. A strong anchor leg by Dustin Emrani secured the win for Central Park as they crossed the line in 3:10.68 to 3:12.99. Central Park TC finished the meet with 167 points to 164.5 for Shore AC. They were followed by Norfolk Real Deal and Zenith Velocity (Metropolitan/New York) with 72 and 52 points respectively. Finishing fifth was Team Nebraska Brooks (Nebraska) with 49 points.

It was a close competition on the women's side as well, but in the end, Norfolk Real Deal pulled away from Central Park TC 138 to 129. Following in third was Club Northwest (Pacific Northwest/Washington)who used a small squad of only eight women to compete with the “big boys” scoring 105 points.  Shore AC scored 94 points to finish fourth, followed by Southwest Sprinters (Southwest/Texas) with 80 points.

Aubrey Baxter of the Team Nebraska Brooks was the Most Valuable Female Athlete, scoring 29 points. She won the shot put, with a meet record throw of 15.60m/51-2.25, finished second in the hammer throw, and third in the discus, and fourth in the javelin. Kevin Thompson of Shore AC was Most Valuable Male Athlete, scoring 17 points. Thompson won the 200m, finished fourth in the 100m and ran on the 2nd place 4x100m relay team. 

The top women’s performance, based on the IAAF scoring tables, went to Alianne Pompay of Shore AC for the 51.66 she recorded in the 400m. The performance was worth 1244 points on the scoring tables. Kevin Thompson was awarded the top men’s performance for his winning time of 20.66 in the 200m and scored 1029 points

A total of ten meet records were set. On the men’s side the following records fell:
Aidan Walsh (New York AC) -1500m - 3:51.49
Claudia Copeland (Club Northwest) - 10,000m -34:55.86
Sylvia Galarza (Shore AC) - Discus - 48.78
Ashley Harpin (Connquest) - Hammer Throw - 63.13m
Aubrey Baxter (Team Nebraska) - Shot Put -15.60m
Norfolk Real Deal - 4x400m -3:42.66          
Southwest Sprinters - Sprint Medley - 3:57.74

Along with the meet records broken, the women’s Westchester TC (Metropolitan/New York) established a new masters world record in the 4x800m. The quartet of Charlotte Rizzo, Jennifer Metz, Jessica Reifer and Nora McGrath ran 9:25.27 to break the record of 9:35.29 by a Netherlands national team.

A post race interview of the record setting team can be seen here.

For complete results, video coverage, and photos from the USATF National Club Track & Field Championships, visit http://www.usatf.org/events/2011/USATFClubTFChampionships/results.asp