Westlake boys, Lackey girls win 2A South Region track and field meet titles

Scoring the important points is vital for teams in their search for titles. Such was the case Thursday and Friday at the Class 2A South Region track and field championships at Westlake High School as Westlake’s boys’ relay teams and Lackey’s girls’ sprints, hurdles and relays all scored those important points in leading each to team titles.

Westlake’s boys won in convincing fashion with 182 points, far ahead of La Plata’s second-place finish with 98. Calvert took fourth with 54 points and Thomas Stone finished fifth with 51. Patuxent (44) and Lackey (22) claimed eighth and ninth places, respectively.

Shook said she was happy with her teams’ performance, especially since its the first time they’ve competed in 2A.

“I know Thomas Alcorn PR’d in the 400. He did really well. He had a phenomenal two-day meet,” Shook said. “My jumps stepped up. Miles Campbell in the discus throw 20 feet further than his PR. He had a great day.

“They’ve all come together. We’re beat up. We’re banged up. Everyone’s hurt. Jalen [Elliott] is still nursing a twisted ankle from Penn Relays. Tobias [Hurley] has a hamstring injury. We’re like the walking wounded. We’re really trying to rest and get ready for Thursday to start.”

Shook said, among many, La Plata was tough competition.

“La Plata’s a big competition again coming out of our region,” Shook said. “The places where La Plata is going to score points we’re not. And we’re strong where they’re not. If we were one team, we’d be a super team, but a team out of the West will be strong. Century was tough in indoor, so I’m sure they will be again.”

Westlake junior Will Moten won the boys 100-meter dash with a time of 10.97 and followed up with a win in the 200 (21.84). Junior teammate Thomas Alcorn took second in

the 200, finishing in 22.50, and claimed the 400 in 48.63.

Moten and Alcorn were also members of the winning 400 relay, teaming up with Jalen Elliott and Tobias Hurley, which finished in 42.91. Westlake also won the 800 and 1,600 relays in 1:29.72 and 1:30.76, respectively. Elliott, a senior, claimed the 110 hurdles (14.57) and senior Nnamdi Chandler took first in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet even.

La Plata senior Miles Smith was a double winner. Smith won the 800 in 1:59.66, almost a half of a second ahead of junior teammate Gage White. The two Warriors battled it out again in the 1,600, with

Smith (4:30.25) winning by nearly a second. The two were part of the 3,200 relay with Jacob Cottle and Ethan Olmsted that won in 8:16.86.

Another Warriors double winner senior Alexander Devine, claiming the shot put (54-5 1/2) and discus (164-11).

Calvert freshman Justin Diehl edged Westlake sophomore Jay Hall in the 3,200 run with a time of 9:58.70, just over a half of a second ahead of Hall.

Lackey took home the girls championship plaque with 165 points, with Calvert notching second with 84. La Plata finished fourth with 52 points and Westlake took eighth with 40. Stone was ninth with 39 and Patuxent finished 12th with seven.

Lackey sophomore Dominique Jeffery won the girls 400 in 57.04, improving on her seed time of 57.78. She

also ran the second leg of the winning 400 relay with teammates Nikiya Mitchell, Sydney Williams and Lauryn Young. Young finished the race as the Chargers won with a time of 49.83, one one-hundredth of a second ahead of Friendly of Prince George’s County.

Williams, a junior, also won the 100 hurdles (14.51) and 300 hurdles (44.84).

Lackey and Friendly were neck-and-neck in the 1,600 relay, with the Chargers quartet of Taylor Williams, Mackaiya Cherry, Erin Pearson and Destiny Thompson winning in 4:04.14, taking the event by just 36 one-hundredths of a second with Calvert’s Anna Kelly, Anita Pope, Sydney Watson and Tatyana Jones right behind in third. Lackey was also a winner in the 800 relay (1:45.26).

Thomas Stone junior Mone’t Peterson won the 800 with a time of 2:23.32. Calvert freshman Sydney Friedel took home the win in the 1,600 (5:36.42) as the Cavaliers had three of the top four runners place in the event. Friedel also won the 3,200 in 12:07.91.

Westlake’s 3,200 relay team of Skye Cummings, Kennedeigh Hairston, Mykaia Johnson and Jour’dan Haynes won the race in 10:09.92.

La Plata senior Lillian Reese captured three wins in field events. Reese won the high jump (5-2), the long jump (18-1 1/2) and triple jump (37-3). She also finished second to Williams in the 100 hurdles (14.78).

The 2A state championships begin at 4 p.m. Thursday and continue at 11 a.m. Saturday at Morgan State University in Baltimore.