Dual Meets begin this week. Mocorunning will once again predict every meet, every week.
Select meets will be further analyzed.

Boys Picks Clarksburg over Einstein Clarksburg over R. Montgomery Clarksburg over Magruder R. Montgomery over Einstein R. Montgomery over Magruder Magruder over Einstein Sherwood over Churchill Damascus over Paint Branch WJ over B-CC QO over Seneca Valley Kennedy over Wheaton Wootton over Watkins Mill Northwest over Blake Northwood over Rockville Northwood over Springbrook Springbrook over Rockville Blair over Whitman

Girls Picks Clarksburg over Einstein R. Montgomery over Clarksburg Magruder over Clarksburg R. Montgomery over Einstein R. Montgomery over Magruder Magruder over Einstein Churchill over Sherwood Damascus over Paint Branch WJ over B-CC QO over Seneca Valley Kennedy over Wheaton Wootton over Watkins Mill Northwest over Blake Northwood over Rockville Northwood over Springbrook Springbrook over Rockville Whitman over Blair

Girls Standings
B-CC 0-0 Churchill 0-0 Walter Johnson 0-0 Sherwood 0-0 Kennedy 0-0 Wheaton 0-0		Blair 0-0 Blake 0-0 Northwest 0-0 Watkins Mill 0-0 Whitman 0-0 Wootton 0-0		Clarksburg 0-0 Einstein 0-0 Magruder 0-0 R. Montgomery 0-0 Northwood 0-0 Rockville 0-0 Springbrook 0-0		Damascus 0-0 Gaithersburg 0-0 Paint Branch 0-0 Poolesville 0-0 Quince Orchard 0-0 Seneca Valley 0-0
Boys Standings
B-CC 0-0 Churchill 0-0 Walter Johnson 0-0 Sherwood 0-0 Kennedy 0-0 Wheaton 0-0		Blair 0-0 Blake 0-0 Northwest 0-0 Watkins Mill 0-0 Whitman 0-0 Wootton 0-0		Clarksburg 0-0 Einstein 0-0 Magruder 0-0 R. Montgomery 0-0 Northwood 0-0 Rockville 0-0 Springbrook 0-0		Damascus 0-0 Gaithersburg 0-0 Paint Branch 0-0 Poolesville 0-0 Quince Orchard 0-0 Seneca Valley 0-0

Division I

It will be a distance running showdown when the WJ and B-CC boys collide on Wednesday. This one is a toss-up, as both teams seem pretty evenly matched. B-CC has more depth in distance events, which could carry them through this division. The sprints could be B-CC's downfall. WJ, also not known for their sprinting ability, does have a few competitive field athletes who could make up the difference in this interesting match up.

Four girls may win a state title, but it won't win a dual meet for B-CC. Addie Tousley and Hannah Richardson will lead their team, but with Anna Bosse and Jennifer Spencer returning for WJ, not even the distance points will come easy for B-CC. Renee McClinton and company should overwhelm B-CC in the sprints and lead WJ to victory.

Division II

Northwest hosts Blake in a division II match up this week. The Northwest boys and girls will have enough strength across the board to handle anything the Blake throws at them. While the Blake girls performed well in several meets during indoors, their jumpers and throwers won't be able to handle the running talents of Northwest.

Division III

Division III will take the spotlight in week one with all seven teams in action between two different meets. Magruder will host Einstein, Richard Montgomery, and Clarksburg in a mega quad meet to start off the season.

The Richard Montgomery boys have been at the top of Montgomery County for some time now, but this year they lack point scorers in several events, which is fine for large meets where they can rely on Etzel, Jackson, and Evans-Chase, but will hurt them for dual meets where they must be able to spread themselves around to cover most of the events.

Meanwhile, Clarksburg is coming off a second place performance at the 2A Indoor State Championship. They are quickly growing into one of the strongest and most well-rounded teams in the county with the help of Avery Graham, Petros Bein, Myles Daughtry and others. It would not be a huge upset if Clarksburg comes away from this meet with a 3-0 record.

The Magruder boys are optimistic about their well-balanced team this year, but indoor season showed that they have a long way to go to compete with RM and Clarksburg. They are hoping that the return of Darius Ray will give them a boost along with their talented young sprinter Anthony Winter and young distance runner Nicolas Escobar.

Einstein has the 1-2 punch of Alex Bodaken and Sebi Devlin-Foltz plus the sprinter Joseph Kelly, but probably won't have enough bodies to compete with Clarksburg or the 4A schools in its division.

The quad meet will be just as important on the girls' side because the division winner will probably be one of these four teams. None of the four proved to be powerhouses indoors, but all teams will be bringing out some of their stronger athletes from outdoors last year.

Magruder looked the strongest indoors and hopes to see Courtney Whalen and Elana Diestel return to the top of their games, but RM should have the talent to match them across the board in this meet, especially by bringing back Erin Hylton, Jessie Weaver, and Rianne Webb at full strength.

Clarksburg and Einstein will also bring out stronger athletes this spring, but probably won't fill out as many events as the 4A teams.

Division IV

There will be a key divisional match up when Damascus hosts Paint Branch on Tuesday. Although Paint Branch has strong athletes such as John Jones, Nicholas South and Marcus Willacy, Damascus is likely to overwhelm Paint Branch with depth. Damascus showed indoors that they can score big in every event. Perhaps those in attendance might get to see an exciting rematch between All-American John Jones and state champ Wil Zahorodny in the 400, or at the very least an exciting 4x4 showdown.

Paint Branch will have the two strongest female athletes in Vanessa Jules and Arielle Statham, but the question is whether the rest of their roster can rack up enough points to fight off the well-balanced Damascus team. In a head to head match up, the favorite must be Damascus with the Zyzak sisters in the hurdles and jumps accompanied by strong distance runners.