Stephanie Jenks Beats Sammy Watson by 0.01 in Boston
In a thrilling mile at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, Stephanie Jenks edged out Sammy Watson by a hundredth of a second at the finish line. As she usually does, Jenks took the race out hard. She came through 400 in roughly 69, 800 in 2:23, and 1200 in 3:37. Her and Watson broke away from the field just after 400 meters in, with Watson sitting on Jenks's shoulder and clearly itching to go the entire time. With 300 left, Watson took over the lead, and powered to a 2 meter gap with 100 left.
But Jenks had a bit more left. With 40 meters to go, Jenks swung wide with a perfectly timed kick and beat Watson by 0.01 seconds--the entire margin coming in the last meter or so. Jenks's winning time of 4:47.48 and Watson's runner-up 4:47.49 are US #3 and #4 this indoor season.
Watson is now in the top five in the national rankings in the 400, 600, 1K, and mile. And this was the best race for Jenks since Foot Locker; in her two races since then, she'd run a 4:58 mile and competed in the 60m hurdles.
| F One Mile Run - Finals | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Overall | Athlete | Class | Team | Result | Heat | |
| 1 | 1 | Jenks, Stephanie | 12 | Linn-Mar High School | 4:47.48 | 1 | |
| 2 | 2 | Watson, Sammy | 11 | Rush Henrietta Sperry | 4:47.49 | 1 | |
| 3 | 3 | Cullen, Margie | 12 | Needham High School | 4:50.15 | 1 | |
| 4 | 4 | Edwards, Sarah | 12 | Bellingham High School | 4:51.13 | 1 | |
| 5 | 5 | Armstrong, Sarah | 12 | Needham High School | 4:51.41 | 1 | |
| 6 | 6 | Doody, Maegan | 12 | Oyster River High School | 4:52.30 | 1 | |
| 7 | 7 | Flynn, Lily | 9 | Ursuline School | 4:53.71 | 1 | |
| 8 | 8 | Rego, Eliza | 12 | La Salle Academy | 4:54.79 | 1 | |
| 9 | 9 | Chmiel, Kelsey | 9 | Saratoga Springs | 4:56.18 | 1 | |
| 10 | 10 | Salis, Leya | 11 | Bedford High School | 4:56.64 | 1 | |
| 11 | 11 | Devlin, Aislinn | 11 | Downingtown West | 4:58.13 | 1 | |
