Wheatley earns top-three finish in five events, winning two

03/23/2003

By BRANDON GEORGE / The Dallas Morning News

Plano East senior Terrence Wheatley was having one of the best track and field meets of his life Saturday at the 39th Jesuit-Sheaner Relays, but yet he couldn't wait to get home.

"I just need a break," Wheatley said. "This has been one long day. Terrence won't be going out tonight. He'll be going to sleep."

Wheatley will need some time to rest after a complete day at Haggar Stadium that had him running from field events to running preliminaries in the morning and racing full speed ahead in a rain-soaked afternoon session.

Despite the difficulty of squeezing in five events at one meet, Wheatley made the most of his fast-paced day by winning the long jump and triple jump, finishing second in the 200 meters, third in the 100 and anchoring Plano East's 4x100 relay team to a third-place finish.

Wheatley helped account for almost half of Plano East's 83 team points that placed it third in the Class 5A division in the boys-only meet. Plano East also set a Class 5A meet record by winning the distance medley relay in 10:41.46, shattering The Woodlands' 1998 mark of 10:48.7.

"When you have almost half of all the points we have, I would say that is a pretty good day," Plano East coach Jim Dailey said of Wheatley. "He's a real good athlete."

Jenks, Okla., pulled ahead of DeSoto for the 5A team championship by winning the 4x400 relay in the final event of the evening to give it 91 points to DeSoto's 86. Duncanville was fourth with 59 points, and Jesuit came in fifth with 57.

In the Class 4A-and-others division, Lancaster's balance was too much to overcome as it piled up 143 points for the title. Jasper finished second with 88, followed by Richardson (84), Highland Park (67) and Corsicana (44).

Wheatley's winning long jump of 23 feet, 5 inches wasn't his best this season but did break a nine-year-old Class 5A meet record of 23-31/2 that was accomplished by Grand Prairie's Tony McGee in 1994. Wheatley finished second in the 200 against some of the area's top sprinters despite never having run in the event during a meet.

McKinney North junior turns in area-best time

McKinney North junior Sean Harriman ran away from the field in the Class 4A-and-others 800 to win in a personal-best time of 1 minute, 56.90 seconds. The time is the best in the area this season.

"I love running in the rain – it's relaxing," Harriman said. "This is good. I'm pretty much right where I want to be at this point in the season."

Harriman came into the meet with a best time of 1:57.34, second to the 1:57.03 run by Rockwall's Jayson Phillips that was the previous area best.

Last year, Harriman finished seventh for Mesquite at the Class 5A Region I meet with a 1:58 despite battling a hip flexor injury throughout most of the track season.

Plano West senior races to meet record

Plano West senior Jonathan Serrell turned in a record-setting performance early Saturday morning in winning the Class 5A 3,200 meters. Serrell beat the Class 5A meet record by finishing in an area-best time of 9:16.56.

Former Plano West standout Sam Bernal previously held the 5A meet record of 9:31.68. Serrell, who finished third at the Class 5A state cross country meet, has already broken most of Bernal's school records.