The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

St Augustine’s College head coach William “Knucklehead” Johnson said he wanted his Big Red Machine to get off to a “fast start” on day one of the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) Track & Field Championships yesterday, but even Johnson couldn’t have predicted the the perennial powerhouses would distance themselves so quickly on their path to a 25th consecutive title.

With a total of 454.50 points, the Big Red Machine leads the field of 13 schools, 106 points ahead of their arch-rivals, the Queen’s College Comets, in second place overall with 348.50.

The St John’s College Giants are third with 131 points, the St Anne’s Blue Waves fourth with 129.50 points and St Andrew’s Hurricanes round out the top five with 108 points.

The remainder of the field includes the Temple Christian Suns (55), Jordan Prince William Falcons (38.50), Nassau Christian Academy Crusaders (37), Aquinas College Aces (32), Westminster College Diplomats (23), Bahamas Academy Stars (15), Kingsway Academy Saints (8) and CW Saunders Cougars (4).

On day one, the 400 metres, 1,500m and high hurdles (75, 100 and 110) took center stage on the track, along with the 100m preliminaries, in addition to a number of finals in the field events.

In a dominant day one performance, the Big Red Machine led six of a possible eight divisions and are currently second in the two others.

The strength of the SAC team was evident on the girls’ side where they led three divisions outright and shared the lead atop the Bantam Girls division with the Comets at 43 points.

In the Senior Girls division, they led by 17 points over the Comets (76-59), in

the Intermediate Girls they lead the Comets by 29 points (75-46) and in the Junior Girls by 14 points (57-43).

In the Intermediate Boys division, SAC’s score of 74 leads the Comets by a 66- point margin, while the Big Red Machine’s senior boys lead the Comets 61-45.

The Giants lead the Big Red Machine in the Bantam Boys division by a five-point margin, 25-20, while the Comets lead the Junior Boys divison by 16 points over the Big Red Machine.

SAC’s Doniesha Anderson set a new record in the Junior Girls’ 400m in a time of 57.96s, well ahead of teammate Dreshanae Rolle’s time of 59.03s set last year.

Anderson also finished third in the 1500m in a time of 5.33.14s,

Rolle, now in the Intermediate Girls division, maintained her first place finish with a time of 58.22s.

Also in the 400m, SAC’s Kinard Rolle surpassed the Carifta qualifying mark of 49.80s with his first place finish in the Intermediate Boys 400m with a time of 49.49s.

In the field, the top three finishers in the Intermediate Girls shot put surpassed the qualifying mark of 12m.

The Big Red Machine’s Brashae Wood finished first with a throw of 13.37m, her teammate Zhizell McKenzie was second with 12.28m, while the Comets’ Laquell Harris finished third with a throw of 12.04m.

The final of the 100m and 4 x 100 relays will highlight day two today and then on Friday, the meet is expected to conclude with the finals of the 200m, 800 and 4 x 400 relays.

In 2012, SAC posted 414.50 points to lead the field at the end of the first day of the meet, but was just 23 points ahead of the Comets who posted 391.50 points.