Call it Seoul Track Club’s coming-out party.

After winning just two gold medals in two previous visits to the Mike Petty Memorial track and field meet, STC got two golds each from Kristy Taylor, Siarria Ingram, Mark Lieberg and Thomas Kim and finished second in the boys and combined team standings.

"The kids want to compete and better themselves," STC coach Kevin Madden said after Saturday’s running events ended. "Given the opportunity, the kids will take it. We’re excited."

He had every reason to be.

Lieberg and Taylor began STC’s gold rush on Friday by winning the boys shot put and discus and the girls long jump.

The run continued with Kim’s and Ingram’s victories in the boys and girls 800 and mile, while Taylor earned the unofficial title of "Petty’s fastest female" by winning the 100 in 13.21 seconds.

"She’s Division I material," Madden said of Taylor, who had had no training before winning the long jump — in fact, had last seen a long jump pit during the Kanto Invitational last May in Tokyo. "She puts her heart and soul into it."

Madden describes Ingram, a freshman, as having "incredible national-level potential. She’s the single most talented athlete I’ve seen in my 30 years of coaching."

STC totaled 140 combined points, 9½ behind overall champion Kubasaki. In the boys standings, STC had 78 points, 40 ½ behind six-time boys team champion Kadena. Kubasaki outdistanced Zion Christian Academy 94-80 to win its fourth Petty girls team title.

Madden believes STC’s success should attract more runners for his club. "Absolutely. If Seoul American had a track program, we would have won this easily," he said.

Kadena coach Sergio Mendoza believes his boys team, with three star sophomores, can someday measure up to the "Great Eight" of 2006 and ’07, which dominated Petty and the Kanto Invitational.

"These guys are young. They can catch that," Mendoza said. "We feel we have the makeup of something really special."

Kubasaki’s girls "worked hard, it pays off, it feels great," coach Charles Burns said. "It’s great to have people dedicated to doing hard work and giving it all they’ve got."

Two more records fell Saturday, making it four for the meet, the fewest since the meet was established in 2003.

Zion Christian Academy’s Sarah Wilson broke her own girls 400 record set the night before in qualifying. She was clocked in 59.22 seconds, and American School In Japan’s Gwen Thornton joined her as the first sub-1-minute runners, in 59.7.

"She did well today," coach Keefe Wilson said of Sarah Wilson, who said her goal is to try to reach 58 this season. "She did a good job."

Kadena’s boys topped their own 400 relay mark of 45.28 set two years ago. The Panthers bested that by a tenth of a second, but said they weren’t satisfied after running 43s in two previous regular-season meets.

"I’m happy we got the record, but I’m not happy about the time," senior Brandon Harris said.

Meanwhile, it was learned early Saturday that the 6-year-old girls 800 record fell during Friday’s qualifying for Saturday’s final. STC’s Ingram clocked 2:28.22, besting ASIJ’s Lindsay Rutter’s mark of 2:29.7.

Besides the STC Fab Four, other multiple gold medalists included Harris and Shariff Coleman of Kadena and Zion’s Wilson, Kelly Colbert and Teauna Baker.

St. Mary’s baseball team wins Spring Fling title againSean Durham batted a combined 5-for-8 with five runs and two RBIs as St. Mary’s International of Tokyo completed its third unbeaten run through Kubasaki’s Spring Fling Athletics Festival baseball tournament.

The Titans beat Kubasaki 11-4 and ASIJ 16-6 on Saturday after downing Kadena 6-4 on Friday to finish the event 3-0; they’re 9-0 in three Spring Flings.

"They’re a great team," Kubasaki coach Randy Toor said. "They always bring solid players. They have good pitching. They make the routine plays. They’re definitely the team to beat at Spring Fling."

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