Century girls capture indoor title outdoors
By Pat Stoetzer
The fate of the Carroll County Athletic League indoor track meet was unknown earlier in the week, with several inches of snow covering the stadium surface at Century High School atop a layer of ice.
Carroll planned to hold the meet outdoors as it had done in January, but getting the track in shape became the top priority. With the help of meet officials and other volunteers throughout the week, the wintry obstacles were cleared in time for Saturday’s CCAL meet.
Nobody seemed too fazed by the chilly conditions, least of all Century — the Knights collected 136 points behind four first-place finishes and cruised to the girls team title.
Century had nine top-three performances, led by sophomore Jasmine Stanton. The sprinter took gold in the 55-meter dash and ran a leg on the Knights’ winning 4x200 relay. Senior distance runner Hannah Bauer won the 1,600, and Century’s 4x400 relay also earned first.
“It’s definitely been interesting,” said Knights coach Dyron Johnson, whose team won for the second straight season. “Just doing whatever we can to allow the kids to have a season is really how it’s been.”
Stanton said she and her teammates didn’t take the winter for granted.
Century and Manchester Valley were two schools to host track meets this winter, and the county teams rotated between sites for tri- and quad-meets. They got meets in on Jan. 9 and Jan. 16 before having to postpone on Jan. 23 and Jan. 30 because of weather-related conditions.
Stanton said not being able to compete for three weeks likely had an effect on Saturday’s performances, “but people worked hard at home. We went on the treadmill or outside if we could.”
Stanton said the Knights worked hard as a group to finish the winter with a championship. The indoor meet record holder in the 55 (7.3 seconds in 2020) had to work hard to hold off Francis Scott Key senior Laura Gilford in order to repeat as champ this year. Stanton won in 7.64 to Gilford’s 7.65. Gilford won the 300 and FSK teammate Elizabeth Mahoney took first in the shot put.
South Carroll came in second as a team with 71.5 points and Manchester Valley took third with 70. Westminster was fourth and collected a county title from Lydia Houle (300). Liberty’s Sophia Echevarria won the pole vault as the lone competitor.
The Mavericks had county champions in Taylor Shank (800), Lauren Francino (55 hurdles), Carrie Moore (high jump), and Rubie Goffena, who won the 3,200 and helped MV win the 4x800 relay.
“I”m very grateful for this situation because you get to see other competitors that you haven’t seen in a really long time,” Goffena said. “And we can show off all the training that we’ve all been doing.”