The Foot Locker Outdoor Track & Field Championships, A to Z Presented by adidas and the National Scholastic Sports Foundation

	St. Thomas Aquinas High's Sanya Richards (Check out "B") won three gold medals at the Florida Class 3A Meet.

A 3.4 grade point average made 2000 Foot Locker outdoor sprint entry Warren Rogers, a senior at Serra High (Gardena, Calif.) an easy scholarship target for UCLA, where he'll start this fall. But speed didn't hurt, either. Rogers entered this season with the nation's fastest returning 100-meter dash time (10.34) and the second-fastest 200-meter time (20.88) among high school competitors. Rogers, who's gunning for a spot on the 2004 U.S. Olympic track team, broke the national freshman record in the 200 three years ago with a time of 21.15.

Behind 2000 Foot Locker outdoor entry Sanya Richards, St. Thomas Aquinas High (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) won last month's Class 3A state outdoor track meet title with a meet-record 140 points. The sophomore won three gold medals (100- and 200-meter dash, long jump).

Collecting medals became an event in itself for Oakland Mills High (Columbia, Md.) junior sprinter and 2000 Foot Locker outdoor entry Kyle Farmer, who won four earlier this month to lead the Scorpions to their seventh team state outdoor track title in a row.

Determined to improve upon her personal-best time of 4:46 in the mile, Montgomery High (Santa Rosa, Calif.) junior Sara Bei will attempt to bounce back after a third-place finish (4:54) in last week's Golden West Invitational.

Everyone with be wondering how he'll run in the 2000 Foot Locker outdoor 800, but lest we forget, Boston English High (Mass.) senior Said Ahmed broke the Massachusetts State Track Coaches Invitational indoor meet record in the 600 in January (1:21.27), which was then the nation's fastest high school time of the year.

Four straight state Division I titles for the Collinwood High (Cleveland, Ohio) girls' outdoor track team is amazing. Led by senior Christina Estrict, who won her third consecutive high jump title earlier this month with a state meet-record leap of 6-feet, Collinwood has been a force in Ohio. Estrict enters the 2000 Foot Locker outdoor championships owning a personal-best height of 6-1.

Generous officiating allowed Big Bear High (Big Bear Lake, Calif.) junior Ryan Hall to win the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Division IV 1,600-meter crown after being disqualified, then reinstated last month. Hall arrived just before race time and basically ran from his car onto the track, but had already been scratched. After some enthusiastic lobbying, Hall was allowed to race and won with a time of 4:09.71.

Heather Hennessey, a 2000 Foot Locker outdoor entry from Los Gatos High (Calif.), may be an unexpected factor in the girls' 800-meter field. Back in April, Hennessey finished just one second behind Corona Del Mar High (Newport Beach, Calif.) senior standout Liz Morse at the Flo-Jo Memorial Arcadia Invitational. Morse ran a career-best time of 2:09.40, which was then the fastest high school time in the nation this year.

Junior Dathan Ritzenhein, the '99 national cross country champion from Michigan's Rockford High, proved he's peaking at the right time. Late last month, Ritzenhein won state titles in the 1,600 (a meet-record time of 4:08.8) and the 3,200 (9:00.63).

Karen Freburg of San Luis Obispo High (Calif.) and Briona Reynolds of Red River High (Grand Forks, N.D.), a pair of juniors, will repeat last week's Golden West Invitational shot put showdown at Foot Locker. The rivals finished first and third, respectively, at the GWI.

Look out for Suffern High (N.Y.) miler and 2000 Foot Locker outdoor entry Justin Romaniuk, who finished seventh in the mile at this year's Penn Relays Carnival with a time of 4:25.68.

McDowell High's (Erie, Pa.) Sheena Gordon is in for a workout at this year's Foot Locker outdoor championships ? she will compete in the long jump, triple jump and high jump.

Newport Harbor High (Newport Beach, Calif.) senior and 2000 Foot Locker outdoor entry Trevor Jones set the Orange County record in the boys' 300-meter hurdles earlier this month with a time of 36.60 seconds at the California Interscholastic Federation Track and Field Championships. The time was .14 seconds faster than the previous Orange County record, set in 1985 by Ezperanza High's (Anaheim, Calif.) Keith Pontiflet.

Obviously, the star power of this year's Foot Locker outdoor championships is enhanced by the registration of Wilson High (Long Beach, Calif.) senior Lashinda Demus, the 1999 Track & Field News Prep Athlete of Year, who is entered in the 400-meter hurdles field.

Power is one thing Bishop Hendricken School (Warwick, R.I.) senior Josh McCaughey isn't short on. At 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, the 2000 Foot Locker hammer throw entrant set the national high school indoor 25-pound weight record with a throw of 80 feet, 3 inches. He then broke the 35-pound weight national scholastic mark with a throw of 61-2 3/4 at last December's Dartmouth Relays (Hanover, N.H.).

Question their sanity, but don't question the depth of North High's (Riverside, Calif.) sprint corps. The Huskies' girls are entered in the 4-x-100-, 4-x-200- and 4-x-400-meter relays.

Rickey Harris, a senior at Centreville High (Va.) and 2000 Foot Locker entrant, is the top boys' high school hurdler in the nation. Last year, Harris set a national indoor record in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 7.74 seconds and registered the nation's fastest time in the 400-meter hurdles for the 15-19 age group with a time of 50.28. At the Thomas Jefferson Invitational (Richmond, Va.) this year, he clocked in at 50.26, the fastest time in the nation this year. The time earned him a slot at the U.S. Olympic Trials later this summer, where he'll be the lone high school competitor in the 400-meter hurdles. He is currently ranked 30th in the country, including college and pro sprinters, in the event.

Serra High (Gardena, Calif.) owned the best time of the season among the early Foot Locker outdoor entrants in the boys' 4-x-100-meter relay with a blistering mark of 40.97 seconds.

Two hundred feet is a milestone throw for any javelin man, but Methuen High (Mass.) senior and 2000 Foot Locker outdoor entry Sean Furey is well beyond that. The erstwhile All-Scholastic football quarterback owns the nation's best toss this season of 227 feet.

Unbelievable Willmar High (Minn.) sophomore Stacie Manuel, who broke her own national pole vault record on May 25, clearing 13-4 at the Section 2AA North Subsection Meet, will take a shot at a new mark during this year's Foot Locker outdoor championships. Manuel's first national pole vault record of 13-3/4 broke the previous outdoor mark of 13 feet, set by Shannon Agee of Helena High (Mo.) in 1998.

Vertical achievement seems to be Boca Ciega High (Gulfport, Fla.) senior Jimmy Baxter's stock and trade. The 2000 Foot Locker outdoor entrant, who owns the nation's best boys' high jump at 7-7, averaged 20 points and seven rebounds a game last winter for the Pirates' hoop team. The 6-foot-5 Baxter, ranked in the top 100 among basketball prospects by most recruiting experts, has committed to the University of South Florida.

Wolfforth Frenship High's (Wolfforth, Texas) Sage Thames owns the nation's best boys' pole vault effort this season with his clearance of 17-6 1/2.

X-tra ordinary race-day performances are becoming a habit for Hoover High (Glendale, Calif.) junior Anita Siraki. In April, she ran the nation's fastest time this season in the 3,200 (10:18.61) at the Flo-Jo Memorial Arcadia Invitational, earning her fifth place on the all-time region list. Last December, she finished fourth at the Foot Locker national cross country championships.

Young hurdlers will get a look at genius in motion this weekend thanks to 2000 Foot Locker outdoor entry and North High (Riverside, Calif.) senior Nicole Denby, who set a national record in the 100-meter low hurdles at the California Interscholastic Federation Track and Field Championships June 3. Her time of 13.2 seconds just edged the record time of 13.23, set by South High's (Denver, Colo.) Dominique Calloway in 1996.

Zeroing in on 2000 Foot Locker outdoor national meet co-director Mike Byrnes is no easy task. The busy Byrnes, who helped found the New York-based Scholastic Indoor Track & Field Championships in 1984, also established the Nike Indoor Classic in Indiana, which he directs every April.