By TONY BELLISSIMO
Strickland finished in 50.01 seconds and held off Lamard Herron, Eric Banks and Jean St. Germain to earn the county crown.
“It was a race with a lot of stiff competition,” Rams coach Tim Doyle said. “It was anyone’s race on any given day. It just so happened it was Omari’s day. He’s an extremely hardworking kid who started to realize his potential late last season.”
Strickland’s first taste of track and field came last spring. “I knew he was an athlete,” Doyle said. “All it took was for him to gain some confidence. Once he enjoyed some success he started to realize how good he could be. He accomplished a lot in a short time.”
With a solid winter season under his belt that included a runner-up finish in the 300 in Conference IV, Strickland was well ahead of last year’s pace outdoors. He also stood to benefit from Doyle’s coaching. “We did a lot of work with racing strategy,” Doyle said. “I wanted him to attack the race. To finish at or near the top in the 400, you have to be in the hunt at 300 and give yourself a chance in the stretch. Early in his career, he was leaving too much in the tank. He’s always been good off the blocks. He started getting better results when he went out harder for the first 300.”
Strickland also led West Hempstead’s 4 x 400 relay to the Division III-A title on May 11 at Westbury High School followed by a sixth-place finish in the Class AA meet. He teamed with senior Marvin Field, junior Mike Garcia and sophomore Kyle Garrett.
Like Strickland in 2008, junior Cameron Mitchell decided to join the program for the first time this spring and made his presence felt. Mitchell placed second in Class AA in the 200, finishing in 23.80 seconds. Carey’s Steven Matthew won the race in 23.04, and Westbury’s Herron was third in 23.98. “I’ve been trying to get Cameron to join the team for a few years,” Doyle said. “He’s another great competitor like Omari. He had some quality races, and I wasn’t surprised he came up big in the county meet.”
The Rams managed 19 points in the county meet to place ninth out of 19 schools.
On the girls’ side, Lisa Fuschetto paced West Hempstead with a fifth-place finish in the 800. Her time was 2:28.34.
Comments about this story? TBellissimo@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 204.
