Walk to the far end of the track to the 200-meter starting line. Keep walking right off the track, go through a gate, around the fence and down a hill. That's where the boys throwing events took place and that is where Sean Stanley could be seen at the Seneca Valley tri meet on Wednesday. Unfortunately, very few spectators knew where the throwing was happening, and as a result, almost nobody saw him throw his personal best in the shot put with a mark of 58 feet and 4 inches.

Stanley, who also won the discus, is getting into top shape just in time for the shot put competition at the upcoming Penn Relays. Just four days ago, he was not as impressive, "only" throwing 54 feet and 4.5 inches at the Cougar Relays. Today's throw of 58+ feet is something that no Maryland athlete has accomplished in many years.

All of the Gaithersburg field athletes followed his lead by winning the three jumps and grabbing many more points with seconds and thirds. This left fans scratching their heads: where do they get these guys?

Joey Skidmore doesn't know a thing about good high jumping technique, but he began jumping this season and cleared 6 feet in the high jump today. Trevon Carroll has been on the team for a week and already jumped over 41 feet in the triple jump. Owen Cain was right behind Skidmore in the high jump, and also won the long jump and 110 hurdles. Cain has been around track and field much longer than Skidmore and Carroll, but still only a junior, is becoming one of the most valuable utility men in the county.

Gaithersburg pulled out many more weapons on the track, winning all but the 300 hurdles, the 3200, and the 4x8 and 4x2.

Antonio Palmer won his first ever 1600-meter race in a time of 4:48. He later beat Wil Zahorodny in a tactical 800-meter race with a time of 2:02. Zahorodny had just completed the 3200-meter run in 10 minutes not long beforehand.

Zahorodny and Palmer met again as the anchors to the 4x400 relay. Damascus entered the exchange just before Gaithersburg, but a botched handoff and dropped baton set Damascus back several seconds. Palmer's head start gave him an easy path to victory.

The Gaithersburg boys nearly doubled the score of the Damascus boys, but the girls' match up was much tighter.

The Gaithersburg girls ruled the sprints between Alissa Jewell, Simone Harris, and Amanda Washington. Abby Spitler did her part by winning the 1600 and 3200. But the Damascus girls matched their efforts by sweeping the 800, winning the hurdles, and scoring big in several field events. The Damascus girls have a slight lead heading into the pole vault competition tomorrow.