In a winter when several Delaware athletes approached elite status, sprinter Daija Lampkin achieved national prominence.

After sweeping the state championships in the 55, 200 and 400, the Middletown High junior won the 55-meter invitational at New York’s Millrose Games, the nation’s most storied indoor track festival, posting the nation’s second fastest time through February.

In a season when Lydia Olivere of Padua became the fifth Delaware girl to break 5 minutes at 1600 meters and the fastest sophomore ever in the 3200, two-event champion Micaiah Dendy of St. George’s launched the third 38-foot triple jump in state history, and Smyrna’s Myrissa McFolling-Young became Delaware’s eighth 40-foot shot putter, Lampkin was named the state’s outstanding female indoor track athlete.

Lampkin honed her strengths with twice-daily workouts and participation in an alien sport. At the behest of friends, she joined Middletown’s field hockey team last fall. She didn’t like the scuffling inherent in the sport, but relished the running and contributed to the Cavaliers’ conference championship.

“No matter what sport she is in, she would excel in, because she’s that competitive,” says Middletown track coach Mary Kay Waltemire. “Daija is quite the team player.”

Field hockey primed her for the winter. In the season’s first meet, at Kutztown University, Lampkin became the fifth fastest in state history at 55 meters (7.08). Before New Year’s, she lowered her mark to 7:03 at the Marine Corps (N.Y.) Classic.

In mid-January at Ursinus College, she went 24.92 in the 200, the fifth Delaware girl to break 25 seconds. Two weeks later, at the Ocean Breeze Invitational on Staten Island, she lowered her standard to 24.2, second all-time in Delaware to Padua graduate Maiya Dendy.

In sweeping the sprints at the state meet, she finished the 400 in 56.42, the fleetest Delaware time since Delcastle’s Tamara Stoner in 1990, and earned an invitation to the Millrose Games.

She had planned to buy a ticket to the Millrose before the call arrived. A half-dozen Delaware athletes have been invited to the Millrose Games. Each has done well — Tatnall distance runners Juliet Bottorff and Haley Pierce claimed fourth places — but Lampkin’s blast out of the New York Armory’s blocks made her the first Delaware winner.

“I was more excited about going than nervous. Being excited instead of nervous helped me in the 55, because my nerves didn’t overwhelm me,” says Lampkin. “So I just went out to run and have fun.”

With a sleek, powerful start, she rocketed to an immediate lead and finished in 6.91, winning by over a tenth of a second, which is a landslide at 55 meters. She tied the Millrose Games record and eclipsed the state record of Christiana’s Danielle Bailey that had stood for 15 years. Olympic champion Alyson Felix, her heroine, visited and gave her own winning flowers to Lampkin.

Since blossoming into the outdoor 200 champion last spring, Lampkin has worked regularly with Mark Dendy, another Middletown resident who is the father of Maiya, Micaiah and Marquis Dendy, who last month won the USA Indoor long jump championship (27-7). Often, the workouts come after regular practice with her varsity teammates.

“Mr. Dendy helped me for my start and my drive phase,” says Lampkin. “He reminds me to be more relaxed when I run, to make sure my shoulders aren’t tensed up, are loose, and my arms go cheek to cheek, to make sure I have good form, to make sure my start is explosive and that when I do my first step, it has to be a big step out of the block.”

In the collaborative community of track and field, where rival runners are often close friends, Dendy is helping to elevate Lampkin as she prepares to challenge the outdoor records at the 100, 200 and 400 — all now held by Maiya Dendy, now a freshman at University of South Carolina.

She imparts those tactics to her teammates. “She’s always out there wanting to help other kids to get better. She will tell them, ‘You need to work on your starts, and here’s how you do them.’ If someone asks, she tells them,” says Waltemire.

Middletown’s 4×200 relay, which also returns sophomores Erikah and Andrea Jones, was two seconds off the state record last year. Meanwhile, Lampkin hopes to fend off Ursuline sophomore Najiya Cornish, the defending outdoor 100 champion.

“She has yet to complain or come in with an injury. She never says I’m tired because I had a second workout last night. She just is focused on her ultimate goal for the season. I don’t think she ever gets tired,” adds Waltemire.

“She’ll be up late studying. She’s an outstanding student and a very dedicated individual. She has a plan in her mind, so she goes out for it.”

“Track is a sport when there are some days you ask yourself, ‘why do I do track?,’ because the workouts are so difficult, but it all pays off,” Lampkin said.
(Article Courtesy of DelawareOnline.com)