The Mocorunning.com Girls All-Freshman Team is composed of a Freshman of the Year and the next ten talented young athletes with the most potential to be future stars. Results from indoor and outdoor track were used to assess the freshmen for this team (cross country season has its own All-Freshman Team). Additional bright young athletes are included as honorable mention.
Freshman of the Year
Bailee Freeman, Clarksburg - Freeman came on very strong at the end of the season, winning the 2A West Region High Jump Title and winning the 2A Long Jump state title. She ended the season with the best high jump (5-02) and long jump (17-10.00) among Montgomery County freshmen in the last four years. Her LJ of 17-10 is the fifth best mark by a Montgomery County athlete of any grade in the last ten years. She also placed sixth at the regional meet in the 100 hurdles with a season-best time of 17.61.
Udeme Akpaete, Springbrook - Akpaete was the best of a strong crop of Montgomery County 400 runners. She ran a season best time of 57.5 at the 4A West Region Meet where she qualified to run at the state championship. She was the second fastest freshman in the 800 with a time of 2:24.81 and the fourth fastest freshman indoors in the 500 with a time of 1:21.70.
Lakayja Alston, Damascus - Alston had the fastest 300-meter time (42.88) among Montgomery County freshmen this indoor season. Outdoors, she dipped under 60 seconds for 400 meters several times including a third place finish in 57.67 at the 3A West Region Meet. She also clocked times of 13.06 in the 100, 26.63 in the 200, and 7.66 in the 55.
Grace Corbett, Wootton - Corbett won the indoor regional championship 500-meter run with a season best time of 1:19.45. Outdoors, she was the Montgomery County and 4A West regional champion in the 800-meter run with a season best time of 2:18.70. She also anchored her school's 4x800 relay to victory at regionals and states.
Laura Dally, Walter Johnson - Dally quickly picked up on the hurdles this indoor season as her time of 9.13 makes her the fastest Montgomery County freshman in the 55-meter hurdles in the last four years. She was the fastest among freshmen this year in the 100 hurdles (15.62) and the 300 hurdles (49.70). She also jumped 34 feet in the triple jump.
Casey Dowling, Wootton - Dowling did it all this year. She clocked the fastest times among Montgomery County freshmen in the 55 (7.52), 100 (12.42), and 200 (25.87). She also clocked 42.99 in the 300, 59.56 in the 400, and long jumped 17-09.25. She was the Montgomery County and 4A West Region long jump champion.
India Knight, Northwest - Knight qualified for the state championship in the 400 with a time of 58.5 and followed it up with an 11th place finish in 59.30. She also ran 2:26.40 for the 800 and 5:49.63 for the 1600 this outdoor season. Indoors she ran 1:21.45 in the 500.
Virginia Owusu-Mainoo, Seneca Valley - Owusu-Maino
o placed fifth at the indoor Montgomery County Championship in the shot put with a mark of 29-01.00, making her the top indoor freshman thrower from Montgomery County in the last four years. Outdoors she improved her personal best to 29-10, and hit a mark of 83-07.50 in the discus, the best throw by a Montgomery County freshman in the last four years.
Anna Ryba, Whitman - After being named Mocorunning's cross country freshman of the year, Ryba sat out the indoor track season, but came back in the spring to run 5:28.66 in the 1600 and 11:34.3 in the 3200. She placed fifth at the Montgomery County Championship in the 3200.
Camry Torian, Northwest - Torian came on strong at the end of the season, running 12.58 in the 100 and placing fifth at the Montgomery County Championship. At the 4A West Region Meet, she placed fourth in the 100 and 200 with a season best time of 25.87 in the 200.
Rachel Watkins, Magruder - Watkins was just a step behind the top sprinters in Montgomery County this season with season best times of 7.54 in the 55, 12.69 in the 100, and 26.31 in the 200. All of her best performances came at regional meets, but she just missed qualifying for states in all three events.
Dowling does it all, but isn't freshman of the year?
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 06:29:46 AM
Freeman jumped further, won a region title and a state title. Dowling may do it all, but others (like Freeman, Torian and Knight) seemed to do it just a bit better.
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 06:42:43 AM
but shes in 2A, with a little less comp.
i saw on the pref. list that dowling is going to the gala lets whats she does
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 09:49:13 AM
Casey Dowling and Grace Corbett had a great season this year. They dropped their times and helped their Wootton team on the sprinting, distance and fields sides across the board. They both are amazing athletes as well. Bailee is a great athlete too but Casey and Grace both helped out more for their team.
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 10:09:15 AM
hahaha, more for their team, hahahaha! corbett skipped out on her team at states. yeah what a team player. freeman scored almost as many points at states as dowling did at regionals and state combined. wooton needs to stop now. your embarassing yourselves.
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 10:09:21 AM
Great job, Bailee! Winning a state championship is no small task for anyone, let alone a Freshman. The field of stellar freshman would make this a tough choice for anyone. Though I might have looked a little more closely at overall impact on the team through the season. Wootton was expected to do essentially nothing this year with the loss of Ekpone. Dowling ran 4 events every week scoring lots of point for her team in each with sprints, jumps and relays. I would argue she had the biggest impact on her team's overall performance of any freshman from indoor through the outdoor county meet. If I were building a team and could pick a single freshman, it would likely come down to Dowling and Corbett for sure. At that point if I needed a specialist who could potentially dominate an event for 4 years, Corbett wins, however if I needed a points machine with a ton of raw potential in multiple events, then Dowling wins. Either way, Wootton is on the right track.
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:12:22 AM
Don't insult Wootton's athletes and program. Don't insult anyone for that matter. That is just bad sportsmanship. All the freshmen on this board worked hard and deserved their recognition.
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:13:41 AM
How is wootton embarrasing themselves? they had an amazing season despite the loss of Olivia. wootton girls placed 2nd at counties, and 3rd at regionals. That is nothing to be embarrased about. What could you possibly be talking about...
Elevate!
Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:16:53 AM
All these athletes deserve recognition for their accomplishments. What a shame to call out these hard-working girls as individuals. Let's pull this up out of the gutter, shall we?
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:20:36 AM
talkin bout you fillin up a perfectly good article with trash because someone from your team wasnt picked as the best now thats bad sportsmanship
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 12:37:24 PM
What about Elena De La Paz from RM 5:39 1600, 2:31 800? That's good for a freshman.
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 04:28:59 PM
Dowling and Freeman both had great seasons. Seriously, please stop complaining its bad sportsmanship. Be thankful for what you get.
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 05:03:48 PM
Did any of these girls go to nationals?
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 05:26:13 PM
Kevin: Thanks for all your work on this and all you do.
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 05:51:13 PM
rachel watkins of magruder was at nationals for the 55 and 4x200
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 05:54:00 PM
my bad i ment to say 60 meters
Anonymous
Thursday, June 04, 2009 08:22:58 PM
taylor caulk and jenna cantor deserve the top spots. One even helped set a school record and both will probably break all school records in their range.
Anonymous Parent
Friday, June 05, 2009 07:14:14 AM
It's hard to please everyone. Everyone who made an impact on their team is a winner. This is just one persons opinion. I don't know any of these athletes personally so I feel I can be unbiased. I personally think that an individual state title trumps all. To all of you on this list (and those of you who weren't) keeping working. This is just a list...nothing more, nothing less. Keep up the good work everyone! Kevin, do you amazing things with this website.
...
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 01:29:56 AM
"hahaha, more for their team, hahahaha! corbett skipped out on her team at states. yeah what a team player. freeman scored almost as many points at states as dowling did at regionals and state combined. wooton needs to stop now. your embarassing yourselves."
wow. it makes me laugh at how inconsiderate you are. corbett made an extremely difficult decision and helped out not only wootton's track team, but her soccer team as well. dowling only jumped about an inch less than freeman's pr and contributed all season long in the 100, 200, 400, 4x400, 4x200, and long jump. maybe at states and regionals freeman earned almost as many points... but dowling is much more versatile and is competitive in many more events. also, dowlings level of competition was higher than freemans, making points harder to earn... yet she still out-scored freeman. please stop embarrassing YOURself. also, cantor and caulk are very talented athletes and one or the other should have been on this list, but i guess you just cant please everyone. overall, these were fairly good choices.
confused
Monday, June 22, 2009 11:02:16 AM
Re Corbett: How can you say a kid who competed for Wootton at States, anchoring the 4A State Champion 4 x 800 relay (coming from behind to win the race in the final 400) "skipped out on her team" @ States? You could say she skipped out on herself personally, by choosing to bow out of the open 800 so that she could live up to a prior commitment she made to play with her soccer team.
Anonymous
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 07:37:36 AM
Fact: Corbett skipped out on her team at states. Is there anything wrong with that? No. It never would have been brought up if someone did not make the ridiculous claim that she does more for her team than others. Fact: Wootton kids (or is it the Wootton parents?) will not let this rest. Let it rest, please.
