Note: Mocorunning has not received results from the developmental meet and the results on athletic.net are incomplete. In some cases, information is missing.

The Boys

Arms and legs across the field house were marked with the initials "AP." It had been ten days since the car accident and it was the first track meet that Sherwood participated in this season without Alex Popeck who continues to fight to regain consciousness in the intensive care unit. Perhaps no one is more close to Popeck than Sherwood's Jackson Reams who said it was hard watching the 4x800 relay, an event that he and Popeck planned to excel in this season. Reams and teammate Kyle Tockman saved their strength for the open 1600 and honored their ailing friend with a one-two finish in 4:32 and 4:33.

The fast heat of the boys 1600 was led by Blair freshman Urgy Eado for the first half mile. After coming through 800 meters in 2:19, the chase pack swallowed Eado. RM's Jacob Cantor and Northwest's Chris Miller pushed each other up front while Reams and Tockman held back in third and fourth place until there was 100 meters to go. With a huge burst of speed, Reams pushed into the lead and put a gap on the field before crossing the finish line. Tockman's kick was more gradual but edged out Cantor and Miller down the final stretch. Meanwhile, Eado never disappeared and finished in sixth place behind B-CC's Eliot Gerson with an outstanding freshman time of 4:37.

The other distance races saw victories from Quince Orchard as Drew Lehner won the 800 in 2:02.6 with no competition and also anchored the QO boys to victory in the 4x800 relay with a split of 2:05 and an overall time of 8:31.

While Lehner was racing the clock because most of MoCo's top 800 runners were not in the race, QO's Conor Spaulding ran toe to toe with several of MoCo's best distance runners in the 3200. Northwest's Chris Miller led a pack of RM's Sam Martin, QO's Spaulding and Laratta, WJ's Alex Willett, and Sherwood's Tockman through the 1600 in 4:59. Spaulding moved up to the front on the ninth lap and began creating separation on the eleventh lap. He pushed the pace until he had about three seconds of separation with one lap to go. The other guys had big kicks to close the gap, but Spaulding won in 9:50 while Willett was second in 9:51, Miller was third in 9:52, and Martin was fourth in 9:53.

I'm not sure about the 55-meter times. I was counting on the FAT results. Terrence James from B-CC won the open 300 with a time of 36.5. James also ran 2:07 in the 4x800 relay if you were wondering who was leading off for B-CC on the first leg.

Winning the 500 was Kennedy's Kemol Anderson in about 1:09.

Watkins Mill won the 4x200 relay by three seconds over B-CC and Magruder. Splits were Damiete Roberts 24.4, William Yougnia 22.9, Michael Offutt 24.3, and Sterling Cadeau 23.8 for an overall time of 1:35.4. If I'm not mistaken, Blake ran the second fastest time of the day two heats later with a time of 1:36.

Paul Akyen found himself facing off against a different Gaithersburg athlete in the high jump. In the scrimmage, he and Mamadou Doukoure cleared 6 feet while this time it was him and Simba Gwashavanu over six feet this time.

I do not know the outcome of the long jump, triple jump, or shot put.

The Girls

Alex Doll is well known in the soccer world and recently helped B-CC win its third consecutive girls soccer state title. It is a little known fact that her first high school state title came when she and three teammates won the Maryland 3A indoor track state title in her freshman year. Doll won the individual county, region, and state titles in the 1600 and later ran the fastest indoor mile time by a Montgomery County girl in the last decade in becoming a freshman All-American with a mile time of 5:02.53. More importantly, when she was only a freshman, Doll motivated her older teammates to work harder and be the best they could be, a leadership quality that could impact this year's B-CC team in the short time that she will be with them.

In each of the past two years, Doll expressed interest in rejoining the indoor track team while she balanced her time between school and soccer, but she was either injured or couldn't find the time as she traveled the world with the US Under-17 Women's National Team. Now committed to Stanford University, she is back on the track for one more journey back to the state championship with a different cast of characters around her.

B-CC broke up its top 4x800 relay, placing Ava Farrell on a relay team with younger girls. Doll led off for what was otherwise B-CC's A-squad and pushed the pace early. She came through the first quarter mile in first place in 69 seconds. WJ's Camille Bouvet took the lead on the final lap and handed off to her teammate in 2:21 while Doll pushed to a rusty 2:25. WJ's Sarah Breen and B-CC's Grace Rheingruber each ran 2:27. B-CC's Hallie Jester took a commanding lead with a 2:30 split. Caroline Leuba anchored the relay in 2:32 for an overall time of 9:58, but Northwest's Britt Eckerstrom made up a 17 second deficit with an incredible 2:13 split to win the race in 9:57.

In the girls 1600, Doll took more of a controlled approach which paid off. Northwest's Naomi Sheppard and Blair's Morgana D'Ottavi took turns leading in the first quarter mile, but Doll took over on the third lap and continuously built on her lead for the remainder of the race. Her first 800 meters were in 2:44 and her second 800 meters were in 2:37 for a time of 5:21.

The Northwest girls were the fastest on the track from the 55-meter dash to the 800-meter run and the two relays.

Olivia Ekpone won the 55-meter dash in 7.1 and 300-meter dash and 39.9, but the new face from Magruder may have turned some heads. Magruder's Bethany White finished right on Ekpone's heels in the 55-meter dash, suggesting that she may be Ekpone's closest challenger this year and may eventually take over as MoCo's top sprinter.

Britt Eckerstrom owned the 500 in 1:17 while India Knight (immediately following the 4x200) held off Richard Montgomery's Elena De La Paz to win the 800 in 2:28.7.

The girls 4x200 saw more domination from the Northwest girls. From the waterfall start, Britt Eckerstrom ran 26.7 followed by a 26.3 from India Knight. Sheridan Allen split 27.0 and Olivia Ekpone split 24.6 to win in 1:44.6. Magruder was second in 1:53 and Damascus was third in 1:54.

In the girls 3200, Anna Bosse of WJ pushed Ava Farrell of B-CC. Bosse created separation with two laps to go and won the race in 11:46. Farrell finished in 11:48 while Blair's Morgana D'Ottavi was about thirty seconds back in third place in 12:17.

Gwen Shaw and Sylvia Deppen from Wootton ran 9.2 and 9.3 in the 55-meter hurdles out of a slow heat. Bailee Freeman from Clarksburg also ran about 9.3.

Freeman found herself in a tight competition in the high jump with Gaithersburg's Chelsea Harris. Harris won with a personal best jump of 5-04 and fewer misses. Anna Ucheomumu from Einstein jumped a personal best 35 feet and a few inches in the triple jump while Virginia Owusu-Maino threw for a personal best of 35 feet and a few inches in the shot put. I don't know the outcome of the long jump.