Kayah Wilks Shines with Second Place Finish at KPMG Invitational Mile
January 15, 2011 — Warwick Academy student Taylor-Ashley Bean and home-schooled Shaquille Dill repeated as Senior School Girls' and Boys' champions respectively after winning by comfortable margins in their KPMG Invitational Mile races last night. Bean, who was slower than her time last year, outpaced Rachel Fox from Mount Saint Agnes and Rayni Maybury from the Berkeley Institute as she crossed the finish line in a time of five minutes, 45.11 seconds, although she didn't take line honours. That went instead to guest runner Kaley Hook from California for the second year running, who was allowed to compete but not for first prize. Hook finished 22 seconds ahead of Bean in 5:23.7.
But the decision didn't take away from Bean's victory as she was all smiles after the race. “It feels good to win it again although I would have liked to get my time down a little bit, but in the end it is what I did and I’m pleased with it,” said Bean. “I have to admit that my strategy changed a little bit after I heard she was going to be running, but other than that I tried to run my own race and I am pleased with my performance.” MSA's Fox came second in a time of 5:49.4, while Maybury was close behind in a time of 5:55.1.
In the High School Boys' race, CAC Junior Games gold medallist Dill outduelled Juma Mouchette again for the second year running, crossing the line in 4:35.3 seconds. Fellow CAC Games medallists Mouchette (4:42.7) and Trey Simons (4:48.3) were second and third respectively. “I wanted to stay in the pack and keep within touching distance because I know my kick is powerful,” said Dill. “Juma and Trey are both good runners and with them next to me I wasn’t sure on how it would go, so I made the decision to move when I did.” “I may come back to race next year, we will see.”
Kyrah Schraders won the Middle School Girls' race for the second successive year as well, with the Dellwood Primary student running away with the race, finishing in a sensational time of 5:41.7. “The race was easy and I really enjoyed it,” said Schraders. “I will be back again to try and win another one.” Second place went to Quaashire Douglas (5:48.8) of Whitney Institute and third to Quinnae Outerbridge (5:49.7) of BHS.
Paul Smith (5:05.7) of Dellwood ran away with the Middle School Boys' race, with Jeremiah Steede (5:18.4), also of Dellwood, and David Darrell (5:25.9) of Warwick Academy coming in second and third respectively. “I let them lead me down and kept a nice steady pace until the longtail statue and I saw Jeremiah slow down a little bit and that’s when I decided to make my move,” said Smith. “I picked it up and he stuck with me but I know if I could run my race he would have to stick with me and in the end it was enough.”
Messiah Greaves of Harrington Sound went one better this time around as she won the Primary Girls' race in a time of 6:13.28, knocking off an astonishing 20 seconds off her time from last year. Kayah Wilks (6:22.1) of Somersfield Academy came second and Lynsey Palmer (6:24.88) of St. George's Prep placed third.
Purvis' Aaron Jacobs (5:47.9) won the Primary Boys' race, as he held off Rahzir Smith-Jones of West End Primary (5:49.2) and Sajan Harvey of Warwick Academy (5:49.8) in a highly entertaining Primary Boys' race to win his first Front Street Mile.