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Day 3 Notes
On the third and final day of competition at New Balance Indoor Nationals in New York, Bullis finished fourth in the
strongest and deepest high school girls 4x400-meter relay ever contested on a US indoor track. By chasing after three teams
that recorded top four all-time US high school indoor performances, the Bullis girls lowered the all-time Montgomery County
4x400-meter relay record to 3:43.92.
What's just as impressive is that the Bullis 'B' team placed sixth overall in the 4x400 relay by winning an earlier "slow
heat" in 3:51.55.
Eric Allen, Alexus Pyles, Darnell Pratt, and Donovan Beckett-Simms finished out their indoor seasons with performances
listed below.
Girls 4x400m Relay
4 Bullis School Tc-Md 3:43.92
6 Bullis School Tc-Md 'B' 3:51.55
Boys Triple Jump
24 Donovan Beckett-Simms 16 germantown, MD 44-02.75
Girls Triple Jump
16 Alexus Pyles 16 Clarksburg, MD 38-00.00
Boys 60m Semi-Finals
6 Eric Allen 18 Potomac, MD 6.98
Girls 60m Hurdles Semi-Finals
7 Alexus Pyles 16 Clarksburg, MD 8.79
Boys 400m Finals
8 Darnell Pratt 17 Olney, MD 49.02
Day 2 Notes
There was much more action on Saturday as more MoCo schools competed at New Balance Nationals in New York City. The
highlight for MoCo schools on Saturday was Lauryn Harris of Bullis winning the freshman 400m in 56.23. It was the fourth
fastest indoor 400-meter by a MoCo athlete in the last decade and second fastest by a MoCo freshman.
Darnell Pratt of Good Counsel qualified for the 400m finals with the seventh fastest time of the day, 48.68, which puts him
in good position to earn All-American honors on Sunday (top-6 earn All-American according to NSF). 48.68 is the second
fastest known indoor 400m performance by a MoCo boy behind only Sean Sutton of Good Counsel who ran 47.63 at the Kentucky
Invitational and won the indoor 400m national title in 2011. Pratt also clocked 22.20 in the 200-meter dash, which is the
fourth fastest indoor by a Moco boy in the last decade.
Eric Allen of Bullis qualified for the 60-meter dash semi-finals with a time of 7.00 and Alexus Pyles of Clarksburg
qualified for the 60-meter hurdles semi-finals with a time of 8.78.
The Bullis boys clock 1:30.91 in the 4x200 meter relay, which is second fastest indoors by a MoCo team in the last decade
behind only this year's Northwest team.
The Bullis girls clocked 1:40.60 in the 4x200 preliminaries, missing the incredibly deep finals cut-off of 1:39.40. Bullis
will aim to win the high school national title in the girls 4x400m relay on Sunday.
Girls 60-Meter Hurdles
17 Alexus Pyles 16 Clarksburg, MD 8.78q
Girls 4x200
12 Bullis School Tc-Md 1:40.60
Girls Freshman 400m
1 Lauryn Harris 19 Potomac, MD 56.23
16 Sierra Leonard 19 Potomac, MD 59.63
27 Melissa Kameka 19 Damascus, MD 1:00.15
39 Samantha Kameka 19 Damascus, MD 1:01.10
Boys 60m Dash
15 Eric Allen 18 Potomac, MD 7.00q
Boys 200m
16 Darnell Pratt 17 Olney, MD 22.20
Boys 400m
7 Darnell Pratt 17 Olney, MD 48.68q
Boys 4x200m
22 Bullis School Tc-Md 1:30.91
Boys Freshman 400m
18 Austin Allen 19 Potomac, MD 53.33
Day 1 Notes
Bethelehem Taye of Paint Branch, Rohann Asfaw of Richard Montgomery, and Ty Mason of Blake High School each won events and
set records for the emerging elite classification on the first day of New Balance Indoor Nationals Friday in New York City.
Taye recorded a two mile time of 10:35.04, out-running her competition by twelve seconds and topping the previous record by
four seconds. It was the #2 two mile (or 3200-meter) performance ever recorded by a Montgomery County athlete indoors or
outdoors and I believe the fastest ever recorded indoors. The comparisons to Sally Glynn (WJ Class of 1996) continue. While
Glynn was a four-year high school star on the national level, Taye seems to be catching up with every performance. First,
Taye broke Glynn's indoor county championship meet record in the 3200, but of course Taye had a much better facility in the
PGSLC. Then Taye clocked 11:03.56 in the Baltimore Armory, by all accounts faster than Glynn ever ran in the same facility.
Taye topped the mighty Maria Coffin, who was obviously the best cross country runner in Maryland last fall, to win the
indoor 3200m state title. And now Taye threw down a 12 second PR to win the Emerging Elite division of New Balance
Nationals, precisely 1.23 second faster than Sally Glynn ran to win the National Scholastic Indoor Championship 2-Mile in
1995. For the record, Taye's 10:35.04 two mile converts to 10:31.36 for 3200 meters, and Glynn's best outdoor 3200 meter
time was 10:24.77.
Asfaw of Richard Montgomery and Jack Wavering of Good Counsel have now raced each other enough times that I think we could
call it a bonafide MoCo rivalry. It feels like the debate over the best distance runner in MoCo during the 2015-2016 school
year may never be settled. The two have collided five times this school year dating back to cross country season which is
more head-to-head match ups than we would usually expect between a public and private school runner. For those keeping
score, Wavering has won three of those five matchups, but this last one was a whopper. Asfaw dropped from a 9:27.55 two
mile at the Bishop Loughlin Games in December all the way down to a record-breaking 9:11.08 two mile to win the emerging
elite division of the two mile at New Balance Indoor Nationals. Only bested by 1.5 seconds, Wavering took fourth on the
back end of a tight four man pack in 9:13.52. Both performances, when converted to 3200-meters, will rank among the top ten
all-time performances by Montgomery County athletes. For the rankings, Asfaw's two mile will be converted to 9:07.88 for
3200 meters and Wavering's will be converted to 9:10.31. Solmon Haile's 8:59.53c 3200m and Steven Duplinsky's 9:08.23 3200m
are the only other 3200's ever recorded by Montgomery County athletes indoors under Wavering's converted time of
9:10.31.
But wait! There's more. Ty Mason of Blake High School also broke a New Balance Indoor Nationals record. Mason jump 23-05.50
in the long jump to win the emerging elite division and top the previous meet record by 3.25 inches. According to
Mocorunning's all-time top performances list, it was a top 5 all-time long jump performance by a Montgomery County athlete
(indoors or outdoors) and the best ever indoors by a Montgomery County athlete.
More outstanding performances:
Alexis Postell of Bullis qualified for the emerging elite finals in the 60 meter hurdles and placed 4th with a time of
8.78. When converted to a 55-meter hurdle time (8.16c 55mHH), it will rank as the #7 all-time indoor performance by a
Montgomery County athlete.
Jabari Bennett, Blake High School's recent transfer student from Gonzaga, placed fifth in the emerging elite shot put with
a mark of 55-03.75, the best by a Montgomery County athlete indoors since 2009.
Abigail Green of Walter Johnson set a personal best in the two mile with a time of 10:52.78, the third best performance by
a Montgomery County athlete indoors in the last decade. She also helped her 4x800m relay team to an indoor school record
time of 9:33.21, the best by a Montgomery County team indoors since 2010.
Girls Two Mile
1 Bethlehem Taye 16 Silver spring, MD 10:35.04M
9 Abbey Green 18 Bethesda, MD 10:52.78
Girls 60M Hurdles
4 Alexis Postell 17 Potomac, MD 8.85Q
4 Alexis Postell 17 Potomac, MD 8.78
22 Lindsay Lewis 17 Potomac, MD 9.13
35 Brionne Pyles 17 Clarksburg, MD 9.40
36 Helnsarah Penda 16 germantown, MD 9.45
Girls 4x200 Relay
11 Bullis School Tc-Md 1:44.43
13 Clarksburg Tc-Md 1:44.50
Girls 4x800 Relay
12 Walter Johnson Tc-Md 9:33.21
Girls Long Jump
12 Cierra Pyles 18 Clarksburg, MD 5.30m 17-04.75
19 Keila Robertson 16 Gaithersburg, MD 5.13m 16-10.00
Girls Triple Jump
39 Keila Robertson 16 Gaithersburg, MD 11.38m 37-04.00
12 Denise Woode 16 Damascus, MD 11.32m 37-01.7
16 Cierra Pyles 18 Clarksburg, MD 11.12m 36-05.75
Boys 60M Dash
12 Xavier Williams 17 Forestville, MD 7.05
34 DerageTy Mason 17 Silver Springs, MD 7.18
Boys 200M Dash
16 Nathan Phillips 18 Silver Springs, MD 22.49
Boys Two Mile
1 Rohann Asfaw 17 Rockville, MD 9:11.08M
4 Jack (John) Waveri 16 Olney, MD 9:13.52
Boys Long Jump
1 DerageTy Mason 17 Silver Springs, MD 7.15m 23-05.50
Boys Triple Jump
18 Langston Stephens 17 Potomac, MD 13.18m 43-03.00
Boys Shot Put
5 Jabari Bennett 18 Silver Spring, MD 16.86m 55-03.75
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