I was 29-5 (85%) in my week 1 picks with the Clarksburg girls putting the biggest dent into my record. The girls who finished 20th at the indoor county championship with 1 point took down Magruder, RM and Einstein in the mid-week quad. While surprising, I wouldn't call it an upset, as the Cburg girls have some serious talent this outdoor season behind Turqouia Johnson and Paige Harris.

Now that we've all learned a few lessons, 100% is the goal for the rest of the season. There are 40 match ups in 9 meets this week with several private schools thrown into the mix just for fun.

Boys Picks Paint Branch over Poolesville Magruder over Rockville Northwood over Einstein B-CC over Kennedy B-CC over Churchill B-CC over St. Andrews Churchill over Kennedy Churchill over St. Andrews Kennedy over St. Andrews Sherwood over Landon Sherwood over Wheaton Landon over Wheaton Clarksburg over Springbrook Clarksburg over Georgetown Prep Georgetown Prep over Springbrook Blair over Blake Northwest over Watkins Mill Northwest over Whitman Whitman over Watkins Mill Damascus over Seneca Valley Gaithersburg over Damascus Gaithersburg over Seneca Valley

Girls Picks Poolesville over Paint Branch Magruder over Rockville Einstein over Northwood B-CC over Kennedy Churchill over B-CC B-CC over St. Andrews Churchill over Kennedy Churchill over St. Andrews Kennedy over St. Andrews Sherwood over Wheaton Clarksburg over Springbrook Blake over Blair Northwest over Watkins Mill Northwest over Whitman Whitman over Watkins Mill Damascus over Seneca Valley Gaithersburg over Damascus Gaithersburg over Seneca Valley

Girls Standings
Kennedy 1-0 Churchill 1-0 Walter Johnson 1-0 Sherwood 0-1 B-CC 0-1 Wheaton 0-1		Whitman 1-0 Wootton 1-0 Northwest 1-0 Blair 0-1 Blake 0-1 Watkins Mill 0-1		Clarksburg 3-0 Springbrook 2-0 R. Montgomery 2-1 Northwood 1-1 Magruder 1-2 Rockville 0-2 Einstein 0-3		Quince Orchard 1-0 Damascus 1-0 Gaithersburg 0-0 Poolesville 0-0 Seneca Valley 0-1 Paint Branch 0-1
Boys Standings
Wheaton 1-0 Walter Johnson 1-0 Sherwood 1-0 B-CC 0-1 Churchill 0-1 Kennedy 0-1		Blair 1-0 Wootton 1-0 Northwest 1-0 Blake 0-1 Watkins Mill 0-1 Whitman 0-1		Clarksburg 3-0 Northwood 2-0 Magruder 2-1 Springbrook 1-1 R. Montgomery 1-2 Rockville 0-2 Einstein 0-3		Quince Orchard 1-0 Damascus 1-0 Gaithersburg 0-0 Poolesville 0-0 Paint Branch 0-1 Seneca Valley 0-1

Division I

The B-CC girls made short work of the WJ girls in the distance events last week, but Churchill's Erin McManus, Katie Wolf, Maryam Fikri, and Louise Hannallah will be the ultimate test for Addie Tousley, Hannah Richardson, and Paige Donnelly. Fans should expect some good match ups from the 800 and up. Kennedy and St. Andrews Episcopal School will participate, but neither team has the star power to have much of an impact.

If the B-CC boys do what they did a week ago against WJ, they should have no problem taking down Churchill, Kennedy or St. Andrews, but they need to be careful that they don't get stung by Churchill's top sprinter Darren Harris.

Landon has a couple of sprinters and throwers that will keep them competitive with the Sherwood and Wheaton boys, but Sherwood's depth in the distance events will outmatch anything that the other teams have.

Division II

While Wootton has off this week, Northwest and Whitman will have a great match to see which girls' team will later face Wootton with no losses. Northwest had a good showing at the Cougar Relays this weekend, showing that they not only have great distance runners, but also some pretty nice hurdlers, jumpers, and throwers that will give Whitman all they can handle. But all eyes will really be on Britt Eckerstrom and Kathy Aherne vs. Leslie Morrison and Morgane Gay in whatever events they happen to collide.

Andrew Palmer is in great shape right now and will likely go uncontested in the distance events, but Managi Biggers and Chris Onuigbo were flying at the Cougar Relays in the sprints and hurdles. They will also have Sam Trotman in the jumps. Watkins Mill packs some punch in the short sprints but lack the depth of the other two teams.

Blake vs. Blair is interesting on the girls' side. Blair is clearly stronger in the running events, but Blake is likely to clean up in the field events and hurdles. This could be one of those meets where it looks like Blair is dominating, but at the end of the day, Blake is on top.

Division III

The Northwood boys are off to a strong start to their season and will try to keep that going against Einstein this week. Einstein should win the 1600 and 3200 easily, but the 800 and down is a little less clear. Alex Bodaken vs. Giovanni Reumante in the 800 should be a good match up. Einstein also has hurdlers and some pretty good sprinters to match Northwood's, but Northwood should be able to build a comfortable cushion by sweeping the field events.

Springbrook and Clarksburg will get to enjoy Georgetown Prep's beautiful outdoor track facilities on Wednesday. Georgetown Prep fields quality athletes in every event and could give Clarksburg a run for their money if this match up actually counted. Clarksburg should easily be able to handle Springbrook, but not without a great meet with some great races.

Of course, Georgetown Prep will not be a factor in the Springbrook vs. Clarksburg girls match up. Filling out every event with strong performers, Clarksburg is a good bet to improve to 4-0 against Springbrook this week after their surprising sweep at the Magruder Quad last week.

Division IV

Things are heating up in Division IV this week with Poolesville hosting Paint Branch, and Gaithersburg hosting Seneca Valley and Damascus.

Damascus dealt the PB boys and girls one loss each last week, but the PB boys will breeze by Poolesville this week. What's more interesting is the girls' match up.

Although Paint Branch has one loss, I'm not counting them out just yet. They kept it close with Damascus and were actually two DQ's away from beating them. Poolesville will match up similarly with a strong hurdler, distance runner, and thrower who will take easy points, but if Paint Branch makes it through this meet with no DQ's, they could score enough in the sprints and jumps to win it.

There's no doubt that Damascus was the stronger team this indoor season, but spring weather brings out a totally different team each year for Gaithersburg. Coming off of their Cougar Relays victory, Gaithersburg's boys look to have the stronger team heading into this match up. Wil Zahorodny no doubt has the advantage in whichever races he runs, but Gaithersburg has more than enough to match Damascus in just about every other event: field, sprints, hurdles, and distance.

The Gaithersburg girls clearly have the superior sprinting squad in this match up, but the rest of the events are uncertain. Abby Spitler could be crucial as she is Gaithersburg's only line of defense in preventing Damascus from cleaning up in the distance events.