Ripped away
Northern girls claim 3A South meet title over H-town after Oxon Hill wins appeal; St. Charles boys finish in sixth place
When the female members of the Huntingtown High School outdoor track and field team departed Westlake High School on Saturday morning after the delayed conclusion to the Class 3A South Region championships, the Hurricanes celebrated their one-point victory over Northern. It had vanished, however, 48 hours later.
Huntingtown had actually trailed Northern by 19 points heading into the final event of the day, the girls shot put which had been postponed when storms arrived at Watkins Mill High School in Gaithersburg two days earlier. When the Hurricanes’ Elizabeth Diamond, Sierra Butler and Samantha Bolin finished first, third and fifth, respectively, their collective sum of 20 points vaulted them past Northern for the team title.
“When the girls left Westlake on Saturday morning, we thought we had enough points to win the region title,” said Huntingtown head coach Valerie Harrington, whose team departed Westlake to celebrate their fourth straight region title and sixth in the last seven years. “By my calculations we had won by one point. All of the points, even from fifth and sixth place, add up and they all count.”
Huntingtown had been awarded two extra points belatedly when a pair of Oxon Hill relays were disqualified for roster violations, but the Clippers appealed both disqualifications which left the official results in limbo until late Monday night. Oxon Hill won its appeal and the two relays were reinstated and Huntingtown received two fewer points, giving Northern a one-point victory. The final
team scores were at press time.
“I think the rule is pretty clear on the roster violations, it’s a disqualification,” Harrington said. “I understand they would want to appeal so that those relays could compete in states, but the rules is pretty cut and dry. I was proud of both the girls and the boys. Samantha and Sierra and Harleigh [White] and Elizabeth did a great job in all of their events.”
Butler won the discus (113 feet 10 inches) and the high jump (5-0) and White won the triple jump (37-8 1/4) and the long jump (17-2). Diamond won the shot put (37-4) and was third in the discus, behind teammates Butler and Bolin, while White was also third in both the 100 and the 200.
Northern head coach Josh Dawson commended the efforts of his girls, who again dominated most of the distance events.
Senior Molly Barrick won the 3,200 (11 minutes 26.81 seconds) and placed third in the 800 and 1,600. Junior Sarah Deresky was second in the 800 and 1,600, while junior Abby Sweeney was second in the
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3,200 and fourth in the 1,600. Jasmine Holland was second in the long jump and the triple jump.
“I know we’ve done really well in both the boys and girls distance events all year,” said Dawson, whose girls team ended Huntingtown’s threeyear reign as region champions by a single point. “But I like to think that we have one of the best track programs in the area, not just distance specialists. Molly and Abby both qualified for four events at states this weekend.”
Barrick, Sweeney and Claudia Dolan completed a one-twothree sweep of the 3,200, while Great Mills senior Annie Imhof settled for fourth. But Imhof, who is headed to the U.S. Naval Academy this fall, captured the 800 (2:23.05) and the 1,600 (5:08.35) and now heads to the 3A state championships, which are scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Morgan State University in Baltimore, with a legitimate chance at winning two more titles there.
“In the 1,600 were were only going about a 5:12 split through the first 800,” Imhof said. “We really picked it up the last 800.
Normally you don’t see too many negative splits in those longer races, but that’s typically how those Northern girls train to run, so I was just acing them. But we really picked it up the last 400 and last 200.”
St. Charles also had a good showing among the girls. Jasmine Mann was second in the 300 and teammate Christina Marion was third in that event and third in the long jump. Nia Francois was fourth in the 400. The Spartans placed second in the 1,600 relay and fifth in the 800 relay.
Among the boys squads, Oxon Hill easily prevailed with 178 points, followed by Blake of Montgomery County (121.5). Huntingtown took third (118.5), while Northern (78.5) was fourth, Great Mills (64) fifth and St. Charles (35) sixth.
St. Charles’ Kieran Booker finished second in the 800 and the Spartans took second in the 3,200 relay.
Great Mills’ Marcus Smith (10.98) won the 100 and Yann Zeba later won the 200 (22.74). The Hornets also took second in the 400 relay and placed fourth in the 800.