Shalonda Solomon running in Arcadia (© Kirby Lee)
Triple PanAmerican Junior gold medallist Shalonda Solomon, a senior Long Beach Poly High School (Calif.) student, was named the female athlete of the meet in the Arcadia Invitational at Arcadia High School on Saturday (10 April).
Solomon anchored Poly to a national record of 1:33.87 in the 4 x 200m and meet records of 44.95 in the 4 x 100m and 3:36.43 in the 4 x 400m. Solomon also won the 100m in a nation-leading 11.50.
Poly’s mark in the 4 x 200 by Solomon, her younger sister Shana, senior Jasmine Lee and sophomore Jasmine Lee smashed the United States high school standard of 1:34.51 set by Alief Elsik of Texas set in 2003.
Solomon, who won the 100 and 200 and ran on the U.S. victorious 4 x 100m relay in the 2003 Pan-American Junior Games, also teamed with Lee, a gold medallist in the 4 x 400m relay in Barbados, for the Nos. 6 and 7 U.S. high school performances of all-time in the 4 x 400 and 4 x 100, respectively.
Poly’s 4 x 200m was the 22nd in the 37th annual Arcadia meet in Los Angeles County that has produced 79 U.S. Olympians, including Marion Jones, Gail Devers, Mike Powell, and the Dominican Republic’s double World champion 400m hurdler Felix Sanchez, who signed autographs at the meet.
It was the second relay record of the season for Poly, which set an indoor national 4 x 400m standard in the National Scholastic Championships in New York in March and broke records in the indoor 4 x 200m and 4 x 400m and outdoors in the 4 x 400m and 800m sprint medley in 2003.
Elize Coleman of Newburgh (New York) and Ted Ginn of Cleveland Glenville (Ohio) and were named co-male athletes of the meet. Coleman, the national indoor 400m record holder, won the 200 (21.49) and 400m (46.29). Ginn was a part of winning 4 x 100m, 4 x 200m and 800m sprint medley teams and second in the 400m.
