Tale of two 4x400 teams

John Muir High School and Oklahoma University left with different attitudes following their races. Only a few straggling fans remained in Franklin Field as the sun set on the Penn Relays Saturday afternoon, but Obea Moore was still sitting on the infield, signing autographs two hours after he had crossed the finish line in record-breaking time on national television. Already well-known in the Los Angeles area, Moore, a senior at John Muir High School (Pasadena, Calif.) had become a bi-coastal celebrity in the 45.08 seconds of his anchor leg. Meanwhile, anchor Roxbert Martin and the Oklahoma Sooners were trying to cope with a bizarre weekend of dropped batons and poor times. Their victory was shadowed by failure, as the Sooners struggled to find what disrupted the crescendo of their attack on the collegiate 4x400-meter relay record. These two men, separated by just .02 seconds -- Martin's anchor leg was clocked in 45.06 -- left the Penn Relays traveling at incomparable velocities. Martin was silently allowed to leave the track after conducting trivial interviews conducted by race officials and answering a few other questions from the remaining media. Moore, in contrast, had needed security guards to escort him off the track and into the official media room where a good number of reporters huddled around his every word. Autograph seekers in the hundreds had asked for him and his teammates' autographs, and more than a couple of girls had handed scraps of paper with names and phone numbers over to Moore, desperately hoping to figure out where the Muir team was staying (the Days Inn) and the room number (325). Both the high school boys' and college men's 4x400 relay events were heavily anticipated, but one almost didn't occur. In Friday's qualifying, Oklahoma's leadoff runner, Edward Clarke and his teammate Danny McFarlane dropped the baton during the pass. It was the first time that the team had ever dropped a pass. The crowd of over 22,000 gasped, and the Sooners were left behind by the pack. But there is a reason that Oklahoma had come to Philadelphia expecting to run under three minutes and break the collegiate record of 2:59.91 set in 1988 by a UCLA team that included Olympians Danny Everett and Steve Lewis. When Roxbert Martin grabbed the baton, Oklahoma was in contention, and if Martin is in contention, he is going to win. The finishing time of 3:07.94 was good enough to put them into the finals as the sixth qualifier. "I saw the third leg we got back a little, so I thought we are still in reach," a breathless and stunned Martin said after his run. "I thought it was over for us. We were at about 200 meters and I was watching, and they started to tire, so I knew I could catch them at that point. We just wanted to qualify. We are hoping for the record. If it comes, we will be very much happy." Obea Moore's morning qualifier Saturday was much smoother. Moore, hobbled by a sore right hamstring the past two weeks, ran the opening leg to take the pressure off, and his team cruised into the final as the second seed with a time 3:14.95. Southern California rivals Long Beach Poly had run 3:11.95 to finish first. "I was healthy last weekend," Moore said. "But I took off just to make sure, because the Penn Relays is the biggest meet I ever ran in. So I didn't want to take my chances." The Sooners had a full day to rest and think about their error. John Muir High School had just four hours to catch its breath. About 400 schools competed in qualifying heats over three hours, but the majority of the 46,216 fans probably only remember one four-man squad. CBS's cameras were rolling, Mary Slaney had just demolished the field in the women's mile and it was time for event No. 231 -- the Championship of America 4x400 High School Boys' Relay. In a few minutes Moore would run faster than even the most overused of cliches could describe. Moore had been pictured in Sports Illustrated's "Week in TV" section, and it was his moment to shine. Handed the baton with a slight lead, Moore ran the fastest split ever recorded for a high school runner in a 400 relay, and Muir's time of 3:08.72 set a new Relays record and nearly equaled the national high school record of 3:07.40 set by Hawthorne, Calif., in 1985. "We had a messed up baton pass," Moore said. "So after I got the baton it was just basically staying relaxed and bringing it home." Martin and the Sooners undoubtedly missed Moore's performance, because they were out warming up for their race, which they expected to run an hour before the official starting time. The apparent mix-up was used as one reason the time was off, but the crowd and the country wasn't interested. Southern University, the No. 1 qualifier, made the race a dash to the very end, but the crowd wasn't interested. There had been plenty of close finishes over the course of the weekend. The 25,000 or so who had stayed for the final race wanted a dominating performance, and they didn't get it. Oklahoma's winning time of 3:03.15 was an eternity away from 2:59. "We knew we would have a race, but the thing that surprised me was that it was not any faster than it was," Oklahoma coach J.D. Martin said. "We wanted to run three minutes or under. I just thought the guys looked flat. Maybe a little too much nerves. We are just glad to win. I'm sure the crowd might be a little disappointed, but it is a thrill to win the Penn Relays." Roxbert Martin was abandoned by the crowds heading for the exits, and escorted off the track by crews trying to dismantle all signs that the Penn Relays had been held on Franklin Field. Moore was still signing away.

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