See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
Winning at the Millrose Games has become an annual even for the Medgar Evers girls’ track team. This year’s group wasn’t about to let that end — despite not featuring the big names it did in the past.
“All we kept saying was ‘we have to keep it up,’ ” junior sprinter Ja’Nai Cameron said. “It has to be a tradition.”
She and her teammates kept it that way.
The team of Brenessa Thompson, Kenisha Pugh, Aleah Stewart and Cameron won the Public School Athletic League 4 x 400 relay with a city-leading time of 3:53.58 at the Armory last Saturday night. It is also the third-best mark in the state this season.
This is the Cougars’ fourth-straight win at the meet after rival Benjamin Cardozo won five of the previous six.
“It’s a big accomplishment,” Cameron said. “We lost a strong team, but we just had to build up another team to make it just as strong and maintain what they have done.”
Medgar Evers did so without having to race against Cardozo, which had the fastest qualifying time in the Millrose Trials (3:58.68).
The Cardozo team was disqualified for a false start and did not get to compete. Thompson said that her and her teammates’ competiveness wanted Cardozo on the track, but felt the race’s outcome was never in doubt. The Cougars team wasn’t the topranked team coming in last season either and still won.
“We knew we were going to win,” said Thompson, who also placed second in the 55 dash with a time of 7.10.
Medgar Evers still needed a strong anchor leg from Cameron to make it happen. Paul Robeson star Amanda Crawford surged to the front during the third leg and opened up a small lead prior to the final baton pass, but Cameron quickly made up the difference.
Crawford, Latoya Stewart, Eketa Roberts and Leslieann of Robeson placed second with a time of 3:55.71.
“I had a lot of drive coming from behind,” Cameron said. “It was more motivating. I had to be up in the front. It makes me push harder.”
Getting the most out of what it has is what this team continues to do. There is no Kadecia Baird (Nebraska), Shakele Seaton (UPenn), Camile Edwards (UMass) or Nyanka Joseph (UConn) this time around. That didn’t stop the Medgar Evers team from joining them as Millrose champions.
“We just wanted to do it this year again,” Thompson said.