MoCoRunning






County Championship Boys Poll Results
By: Kevin Milsted
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
webmaster@mocorunning.com

Mocorunning.com conducted an open online poll between January 16 and January 21 to determine who the local track fans think will win each event at the upcoming Montgomery County Indoor Track Championship Meet. One hundred and one valid votes were collected during the given time frame. Below you will find a table of the poll winners and five expert picks. The first column on the left is the name of the event. The second column is the athlete that the majority of fans picked to win each event. The third column is the percentage of fans who voted for the poll-winning athlete. The five columns on the right of the table are the selections of five Montgomery County track experts who do excellent in prediction competitions season after season.

    Majority Vote Winner   % Vote     Kevin   Rob   Kid   Matt   Sean
Boys 55   Avery Graham, Clarksburg   80.0%     Graham   Graham   Graham   Graham   Graham
Boys 300   Avery Graham, Clarksburg   43.7%     Graham   Graham   Graham   Graham   Haughton
Boys 500   Antonio Palmer, Gaithersburg   53.5%     Ant. Palmer   Ant. Palmer   Bartholomew   Ant. Palmer   Ant. Palmer
Boys 800   Antonio Palmer, Gaithersburg   62.1%     Ant. Palmer   Ant. Palmer   King   Ant. Palmer   Ant. Palmer
Boys 1600   Solomon Haile, Sherwood   64.0%     Haile   And Palmer   Haile   And Palmer   Haile
Boys 3200   Solomon Haile, Sherwood   90.8%     Haile   Haile   Haile   Haile   Haile
Boys 55 Hurdles   Owen Cain, Gaithersburg   60.5%     Cain   Cain   Cain   Cain   Cain
Boys 4x200   Clarksburg   43.8%     Clarksburg   Clarksburg   Clarksburg   Clarksburg   Blair
Boys 4x400   Northwest   62.8%     Northwest   Northwest   Northwest   Northwest   Northwest
Boys 4x800   Churchill   46.8%     Churchill   Churchill   Churchill   Churchill   Churchill
Boys High Jump   Owen Cain, Gaithersburg   53.0%     Cain   Cain   Cain   Cain   Cain
Boys Long Jump   Owen Cain, Gaithersburg   33.8%     Cain   Wiseman   Wiseman   Wiseman   Cain
Boys Triple Jump   Owen Cain, Gaithersburg   47.4%     Cain   Willacy   Willacy   Willacy   Willacy
Boys Shot Put   Sean Stanley, Gaithersburg   83.5%     Stanley   Stanley   Stanley   Stanley   Stanley
Boys Top Scorer   Avery Graham, Clarksburg   40.0%     Cain   Graham   Cain   Cain   Haile

Analysis

Montgomery County track fans believe that Gaithersburg's Owen Cain can pull off the rare quadruple by winning the 55-meter hurdles, high jump, long jump, and triple jump, but is he really that good? The answer is maybe. He is explosive and exciting to watch. This is not the strongest year, nor is it likely that any records will be broken in any of the four events that he will be attempting to win, but he is without a doubt among the top competitors in each event this year. He sits atop the county leaderboard in the hurdles, high jump, and long jump, but it may be possible that he comes home with no county titles at all. Paint Branch's Marcus Willacy and Northwest's Marvin Lisk have had better marks in the triple jump this year. Quince Orchard's Jacob Adedji tied him at the Montgomery Invitational with a jump of 20-09, while others such as Northwest's Hassan Dixon and Whitman Anthony Young-Wiseman have jumped much further in previous seasons. Clarksburg's Avery Graham will be back in action in the high jump as the only other athlete to previously clear Cain's personal best of 6-02. The hurdles may be his safest bet to win the county title, but anything can happen in a hurdles race and Whitman's Jonathan Hale and Paint Branch's Malcolm Wyche were only a tenth of a second behind him at the Montgomery Invitational. It will be interesting to watch as this rapidly-emerging star attempts to earn 40 points for his team.

Glancing over the individual county favorites, it won't come as any surprise who the fans voted to win the boys team title. Gaithersburg is favored by county track fans to win seven total events. Sean Stanley continues to appear invincible in the shot put even as QO's Marcus Brown continues to make up ground. Antonio Palmer is still the heavy fan favorite in the middle distance events, but he will need to bounce back from a lackluster performance at the Montgomery Invitational to stay ahead of QO's Wayne Bartholomew, Churchill's Sean King, and others.

The only question when it comes to the distance events is whether Sherwood's Solomon Haile will run to win or run to break records. He may not even need to try to break the records of 4:25 and 9:35, both set in the last two years. Many fans believe that the 1600 may be Whitman's Andrew Palmer's opportunity to finally take down Haile after he clocked a 4:23 full mile at the Montgomery Invitational, but according to the poll, more fans think that Haile is just too good.

Watch for big moments to come every time Clarksburg's Avery Graham steps on the track. He now appears fully healthy and is not far off the nation's fastest times in the 55-meter dash. For anybody to win the 55m besides him would be a shock. Many fans are still partial to a fresh Jonathan Haughton in the 300-meter dash, but Graham has just seemed unbeatable lately. The open 300 could be jaw-dropping. Graham is also no doubt the reason fans favor Clarksburg to win the 4x200-meter relay. His teammates are likely to put him in good position and he is powerful enough to chase down just about every runner in the county from 20 meters back.

The meet will open up with what should be a heated record-breaking battle between Damascus and Churchill in the 4x800. A large majority of fans predicted Churchill would repeat their victory over Damascus from the Montgomery Invitational, but nobody believes it will be a blow out.

The consensus is that Northwest will ease their way to victory in the final event of the meet, the 4x400 relay. Likely anchoring the squad should be Chris Onuigbo who opted out of the open 800, an event he would likely score in but would be difficult to recover from.






NameComments

It's possible
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
11:41:46 PM
Owen Cain will win 4 events but Avery Graham will be the top scorer?

Matt
Thursday, January 22, 2009
12:13:46 AM
Avery has a shot at 40 as well. 55 and 300 he is assumed to be a lock. 4x200 should also be his. Depending on his HJ-ing skills he could score 40. However Cain is unlikely to win both LJ or TJ in my opinion, Wiseman has a much better LJ PR, and Wyche is right there in the TJ

curious
Thursday, January 22, 2009
09:35:36 AM
has cain lost any of these events to moco athletes this season? i don't feel like looking up results.

The-boy
Thursday, January 22, 2009
04:47:58 PM
U spelled Jacob's name wrong its Jacob Adedeji

Anonymous
Thursday, January 22, 2009
05:05:56 PM
I see Lisk getting Triple and High jump i feel is in the air since No one seen avery jump this year and the long jump will comd down to who wants it more between Cain, Wiseman,Adedeji, and Dixon. Owen will win hurdles and look for a upset in the shot put i feel marcus brown is tired of getting second and he throws 59 60 to beat sean. churchill wins 4by 8 antonio will win the 8 and its goin comedown to how he fels in the 500 if he beats wayne. haile doubles 16 and 32. i see avery upsetting John in the 300. This counties is going to be a good one. some events to keep eye on are 4by 8, 500, 1600, 800, SP, LJ, HJ, 4by 2, 4by 4 and definetly the 300. I can't wait till monday its going to be a show and definetly i see a lot of upsets!

anonomos
Friday, January 23, 2009
12:22:14 AM
im anonomos hahah

Saturday, January 24, 2009
11:14:47 PM
Watch out for Paint Branch to move beyond the "cusp" as stated in the Mid season Team rankings.....4x2 4x4 Triple Jump Hurdles....They have the potential to place top thee in all

uhnonamis
Sunday, January 25, 2009
11:02:53 AM
anonomos lern howe too speel

Anonymous
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
09:44:54 AM
Cain Is Good But Willacy Does Have A better Mark


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