In 2007, the Quince Orchard boys team set the Cougar Relays 4x800-meter relay record at 8:02.7. It was a very strong mark for early in the season, one that would not even be broken by the 2008 QO team that went on to break the state record with a time of 7:44.67.

This year, that record was blown away by not one...not two...but three Montgomery County teams that dipped under 8:00 in the same race under cool and sunny conditions.

RM's Sam Martin led the pack early on with a 1:58 split followed by WJ's Nicholas Regan who split 2:00. Good Counsel was not even in third place after the first leg split 2:05. WJ's Martin Dally worked his way up to RM's David Hamilton and took the lead for the better part of the second lap. Hamilton regained the lead just before the exchange for a split of 1:59 while Dally split 1:58. Fola Shokunbi of Good Counsel pulled his team into third place with a split of approximately 2:00. WJ's Josh Ellis paced behind RM's Jacob Cantor for 600 meters while Thomas Tallerico pulled Good Counsel right back into the race. With a 1:59 split, Ellis pulled away from Cantor while Tallerico passed Cantor with a split of 1:55. Cantor split about 2:03. The order would not change for the remainder of the race. It was a long drive for a sub-8:00 finish for all three teams. Sean O'Leary of WJ split 1:59 for an overall time of 7:56.2, Kyle Graves of Good Counsel split 1:58 for an overall time of 7:58.5, and James McNamara of Richard Montgomery split 1:59 for an overall time of 7:59.8.

Good Counsel's time ranks 9th among county teams in the last ten years and Richard Montgomery's time ranks 12th. WJ's time of 7:52.07 from this recent indoor season already ranked #3 from the last ten years behind this year's Georgetown Prep team and the 2008 Quince Orchard team. Can anybody catch Georgetown Prep this year? Can anyone catch the ghost of QO 2008?

If that wasn't enough record-breaking action for one day, Good Counsel and Walter Johnson met again in the distance medley relay while Richard Montgomery went after the sprint medley relay.

Richard Montgomery missed the Sprint Medley Relay meet record by 0.1 seconds. Their time of 3:37.1 is #4 by a county team in the last five years.

In the DMR, WJ and GC ran toe-to-toe for nearly the entire race. Josh Ellis and Thomas Tallerico split about 3:17 on the 1200-meter leg, Martin Dally and Sean Sutton split about 49 seconds on the 400-meter leg, and Nicholas Regan and Fola Shokunbi split about 2:00 on the 800m leg. Good Counsel's Kyle Graves had a slight lead on WJ's Sean O'Leary. O'Leary sat and raced behind him until the final 200 meters. O'Leary took off, Graves fought back, and then O'Leary pulled away for good. O'Leary split about 4:22 while Graves split about 4:23. WJ won in 10:29.6 and Good Counsel took second in 10:30.3. The previous meet record was 10:35.9, set by the 2005 Walter Johnson team that featured Andrew Jesien.

WJ also won the 4x400 relay in 3:32.0.

While Good Counsel came up on the short end of two outstanding distance relay races, they were the strongest all-around team by the end of the day. Good Counsel dominated the 4x100 and 4x200 relays despite shakey handoffs. 43.2 was a new meet record in the 4x100 by 0.8 seconds. Ignoring the fact that it was handtimed, the time ranks #8 in the last five years. They also won the 4x200 in 1:31.4 which leads Montgomery County so far this year. Good Counsel will have a good opportunity to improve upon those relay times in a few days at the University of Florida Relays in sunny Gainesville, Florida.

It will not be the first trip south this year for Good Counsel's Thor Serafenas who has become acquainted with and affiliated with the Throw1deep club based out of Marietta, Georgia. Look at results for throwing events for any mjor high school competition and you are certain to find members of the Throw1deep club among the leaders. Serafenas went to one of the club's camps because he particularly wanted to learn more about the hammer and weight throw which he believes he will do in college. He competed under the club name at several major invitationals over the winter, from Tennessee, to South Carolina, to Boston. The results were immediate as he broke 50 feet three times including a season best throw of 54 feet at the Mid-Atlantic Track Classic right here in Maryland.

His success has continued now that he is back competing with Good Counsel. He had the top throw in the shot put at 47-07.50 and broke Sean Stanley's discus meet record by three feet and eleven inches with a personal best throw of 161-07. Together with last year's Mocorunning Freshman of the Year, Ryan Watson (41-09.50 and 122-00), Good Counsel swept the throwing relays.

Although Gaithersburg graduated a lot of talent last year and state champion high jumper Zach Fetters has opted to play baseball this spring, Gaithersburg was still strong in the jumping events. Trevon Carroll had the top mark in the long jump at 19-07.50 and won the relay competition along with Khare Cross 18-02.50 (4th). While freshman Kendall Fuller of Good Counsel won the triple jump in 42-04, it was Carroll and Alimamy Kallay of Gaithersburg who won the triple jump relay, jumping 40-01 and 40-04 respectively. The Elkton duo of Kevin Marshall and Scott Mitchell won the high jump relay, but Gaithersburg was right behind with Kallay and Simba Gwashavanhu each jumping 5-10.

Gaithersburg remains strong in the hurdles, although not nearly as strong as last year. They won the 4x100-meter shuttle hurdle relay in 1:07.5, roughly four seconds slower than their meet record from last year. Both Carroll and Kallay ran out of the fourth of six heats of the open 300-meter hurdles. They took first and second in the heat with times of 40.7 for Kallay and 42.2 for Carroll, but Kallay's time only held up for second best of the day.

Clarksburg's Devin Moreno won the final heat of the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 39.9, a meet record by 0.1 seconds. Moreno has embraced his role as a leader on a team that has graduated a lot of talent in recent years and stepped up this indoor season with a 300-meter time of 36.81. Now his 300-meter hurdle time ranks 11th among county athletes over the last eleven years (ignoring that it is hand-timed). The county meet record of 39.0 has somehow stood for fifteen years. Maybe this is the year somebody finally gets it.

Andrew Palmer ran his first race wearing a Whitman uniform since he won the cross country state title last November. He took the indoor track season off to train for the US Junior Cross Country Championships. He came down with bronchitis before the NSIC track meet and still clocked a time of 9:25.34 in the two mile. Two weeks later, he is feeling better but still coughing pretty badly. He clocked a time of 4:21.5 in the 1600 which was a meet record by over three seconds. However, because the race officials goofed up, the race was only 1600-meters instead of the intended mile, so his meet record will be adjusted up to a mile time of 4:22.9 for future comparison. The previous meet record of 4:26.1, held by Magruder's three-time state champion Awit Yohannes, had stood for seven years.

Last but not least, the Devil Takes the Hindmost race was won by Walter Johnson's Ishan Dey. I wasn't there to see it but I heard he dominated, coming through 8k in about 26:30 and eventually running 8800 meters in 28:36.9.