By JENNIFER JAVIER
Staff reporter
04/07/2002

GREENVILLE -- Newark's Louis Broyles is expected to be one of the state's best jumpers this year.

So far, so good.

Broyles took first place in the long jump and second in the triple jump at the Diamond State Relays on Saturday at A.I. du Pont High. He jumped 22 feet, 1/2 inch in the long jump and 44-9 in the triple jump.

The senior is the defending state Division I triple jump champion, and won both the long and triple jumps at last weekend's Christiana Relays with longer distances than he had on Saturday.

"Today, the cold weather got to me a little bit," Broyles said. "Cold weather makes you tighten up. I think I could have done better in the triple jump, but I was happy with the long jump."

Broyles is just one part of a Newark team that is considered a state title favorite. Most of the Yellowjackets' sprinters were at the Diamond State Relays, including seniors Brandon Snow and Henry Wilmore and sophomore Brandon Reeves. The Yellowjackets placed fifth in both the 800 relay (1:33.57) and 400 relay (44.56).

"Everyone is pretty confident right now," said Broyles, who ran in both relays. "We have a lot of depth. What we have to work on is lowering our 4x1 time."

Another impressive performance came from the Delcastle boys 800 relay team. Anchor Mike Downs passed runners from Simon Gratz (Pa.) and Penn Wood (Pa.) to push the Cougars into first place with a time of 1:32.28.

Salesianum's P.J. Meany, Mike Zeberkiewicz, Tom Lord and Ryan Hamill captured first place in the distance medley (11:00.40) by more than 12 seconds.

The Glasgow girls foursome of Maureen La Fate, Renee Salter, Rachael Salter and Kamilah Salaam also did well in the sprint relays, finishing as the top Delaware team in the 800 (1:45.75), 400 (50.81) and 1,600 (4:05.65). Chester (Pa.) and Simon Gratz finished 1-2 in each of those races.

Double winners were the order of the day in other field events. McKean junior Mandy Stille won the triple jump with a leap of 36-8 1/4 and also won the high jump (5-4).

William Penn's Carlton Rose took first in the discus (165-2) and shot put (57- 1/2 ). Teammate Lateefah Vaughn pulled the same double, with a 38-9 mark in the shot put and 114-10 in the discus.