Finishing in the top five
North Point girls second, boys fifth in 4A East track and field meet
Southern Maryland track and field athletes left an indelible mark at the Class 4A East Region track and field championships Thursday and Saturday at North County High School in Glen Burnie.
Leonardtown, Chopticon and North Point crowned seven regional champions and the boys and girls combined to place an athlete in the top-six in 30 of 34 total events. The three teams also combined to put 53 athletes in the top-six. The three teams combined have 37 state qualifiers.
Severna Park of Anne Arundel County won the boys meet with 102 points while Leonardtown placed fourth with 67. North Point took fifth spot with 57 points and Chopticon finished 10th with 41 points.
“My young men went out there and ran their hearts out,” North Point boys head coach Keith Mitchell said of his team, of which more than half are freshmen.
In the girls meet, Old Mill of Anne Arundel took the team title with 116.50 points. North Point placed second with 91 points, a half-point ahead of Severna Park. Leonardtown grabbed fourth (81 points) and Chopticon snagged 10th place (30).
The 4A state championships will be held at 4 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday at Morgan State University.
“I am thrilled [how we did a regionals],” North Point head girls coach Debra Hall said, “and I’m thrilled about the upcoming state meet. We’re sending two [athletes] in each event and if each of them can score, we expect to do well at the state meet this weekend.”
In the boys meet, the Eagles crowned two champions as Darrien McIntosh won the 400-meter dash (50.35 seconds, 1 one-hundredth of a second ahead of Leonardtown’s Matthew Baker) and teammate Joshua Smith took home top honors in the discus (129 feet 3 inches). McIntosh also finished fourth in the 200 (23.18).
Melton Campbell added a second-place finish in the 100 hurdles (15.03) and was third in the 300 hurdles (40.42). Braxton Hammock was runner-up in the 300 hurdles in a time of 39.08, six one-hundredths of a second behind Arundel’s Nigel Mills. Kendel Hammock added a fourthand a fifth place finish in the 100 hurdles (15.64) and 300 hurdles (41.67), respectively.
“To have three of my seniors make it to the state meet makes me really proud that I was able to come in my first year and not take anything away from them but to help them,” Mitchell said of state qualifiers Campbell, MacIntosh, Smith and the Hammocks. Kendel Hammock is the team’s lone freshman qualifier.
Leonardtown’s Evan Broadhead won gold for his height of 5 feet in the high jump.
“He cleared 6 [feet] once this year so we know he’s one of the favorites to contend for the [state] title,” Leonardtown head coach Shawn Snyder said. “Everyone got stuck at 5-10 and he made it with misses.”
Ethan Aus was second in the shot put (47-3 1/2) and discus (126-9) and Chris Braganca was fifth in the triple jump (38-5).
“He’s definitely one we thought would make it to states in the shot and discus,” said Snyder, who added Aus improved his throw in the shot by three feet. “He was capable of it. We saw it in practice, but he just hadn’t put it together in a meet and he finally put it together.”
Brandon Blackwell led Chopticon with three topsix finishes. Blackwell was second in the long jump (22-1), third in the 100 (11.41) and took sixth in the 200 (23.27). Isaiah Smith was fourth in the high jump (5-10) and Tyler Modrzejeweski placed fifth in the 1,600 (4:30.40) and 3,200 (10:13.83).
On the girls side, Leonardtown crowned two champions as Angel-Leigh Sewell (discus, 104-3 1/2) and its 3,200 relay team of Raquel Drexel, Liana Foianini, Tyra Countiss and Lorina Clemence (9:50.05) each came away with victories.
“That’s what she’s been doing all year,” Snyder said. “She outdid herself in the shot put and pulled one out.”
The Raiders came close to adding a third title in the
800 relay when the quartet of Katie Kelly, Clemence, Renee Nosko and Leya Essex finished in 1:44.93 but were nipped at the line by Old Mill (1:44.58).
Sewell also added a secondand a third-place finish in the shot put (32-4) and triple jump (33-11), respectively. Foianini placed third in the 800 (2:22.60) and 3,200 (12:06.41) and Asha Gaines jumped 5-0 to place third in the high jump. Essex was fourth in the 200 in 26.31. The 1,600 relay team of Foianini, Nosko, Sydney Forrest and Clemence was fourth (4:08.78) and the 400 relay team of Kelly, Nosko, Leah Gough and Forrest was fifth (52.38).
“We have a good core group of girls that mesh well in the relays and they just did an outstanding job,” Snyder said. “I definitely think that was one of our strengths this year and yeah, I’m excited to see what they can do at the state meet. I just think with the sprint relays we can tweak and get the handoffs a little bit better. I know the girls’ handoff wasn’t so smooth but other than that just keep them loose and keep them healthy.”
Mallorie Smith was crowned champion in the 200 after clocking 25.63, barely ahead of runner-up Jee’vonya Clark of Old Mill (26.07). The roles were reversed for Smith in the 400 when she clocked 58.54, just over a half of a second behind winner Emily Knight of Glen Burnie.
Kyra Miller (100, 12.70), Rachel Nueslein (3,200, 11:36.84) and the 400 relay team of Adara Gamble, Miller, Eve Moten and Carmen Henderson (51.30, one one-hundredth of a second ahead of runner-up Annapolis) each placed second.
“She’s seeded second in the mile,” Hall said of Nueslein’s state placement, “and we expect her to score some points there as well.”
The 1,600 relay team of Miller, Lauryn Lewis, Katie Harper and Kendrah Bullock finished first in 4:03.44. Miller (200, 26.12), Nueslein (1,600, 5:18.66), Bullock (400, 1:00.03) and the 800 relay team of Lewis, Moten, Latavia Jackson and Harper (1:46.34) each added a third-place finish.
Sade Herbert claimed a regional title for Chopticon when she hurled the shot put 35 feet even. She was third in the discus with a toss of 91 feet even. Shelby Johnson was third in the 100 (12.97) and fourth in the 300 hurdles (48.17).