Between January 17 and January 21, MoCoRunning.com conducted an open online poll. All voting was done before a performance list was available. Participants were instructed to select their favorites in each event and rank the top ten teams for the indoor county championship meet. 78 valid votes were used.

Below you will find the results. The county champion favorites are listed with the percentage of people that voted for them.

Event Name, School % Name, School % 55m Dash William Yougnia, Watkins Mill 35.3 Olivia Ekpone, Northwest 92.8 55m Hurdles Damiete Roberts, Watkins Mill 40.9 Thea LaFond, Kennedy 78.3 300m Robert Bowis, Churchill 32.8 Olivia Ekpone, Northwest 88.4 500m David Hamilton, R. Montgomery 60.6 Britt Eckerstrom, Northwest 82.6 800m Sam Martin, Richard Montgomery 62.7 Britt Eckerstrom, Northwest 51.5 1600m Sam Martin, Richard Montgomery 55.9 Alex Doll, B-CC 49.3 3200m Conor Spaulding, Q. Orchard 32.8 Anna Bosse, Walter Johnson 61.5 4x200 Churchill 56.5 Northwest 82.6 4x400 Churchill 40.6 Northwest 76.8 4x800 R. Montgomery 42.0 Northwest 50.8 High Jump Zach Fetters, Gaithersburg 78.8 Thea LaFond, Kennedy 88.1 Long Jump Sheldon Trotman, Northwest 43.9 Thea LaFond, Kennedy 58.2 Triple Jump Sheldon Trotman, Northwest 64.6 Thea LaFond, Kennedy 81.8 Shot Put Nnamdi Edokobi, R. Montgomery 47.7 Virginia Owusu-Mainoo, SV 42.6 Top Scorer Sam Martin, Richard Montgomery 30.2 Thea LaFond, Kennedy 53.7 Tie Breaker Questions Winning 4x4 Time 3:30.17 4:04.86 Winning Team Scores 75.7 85.4

Rk Boys School Poll Points Rk Girls School Poll Points 1 Churchill 348 1 Northwest 444 2 R. Montgomery 337 2 Kennedy 260 3 Q. Orchard 284 3 B-CC 233 4 W. Johnson 259 4 Wootton 219 5 Watkins Mill 216 5 W. Johnson 213 6 Gaithersburg 166 6 Magruder 203 7 Northwest 152 7 Damascus 160 8 Kennedy 106 8 Northwood 124 9 Sherwood 100 9 Churchill 119 10 Damascus 84 10 Whitman 98

Team breakdown:

Churchill and Richard Montgomery were close in the boys team voting and rightfully so. Both teams cover most of the events quite well. Churchill has the edge with many of the strongest county performances in the sprints and sprint relays so far, which not many people expected. This of course compliments their typically strong distance squad. Quince Orchard jumped from sixth in the preseason to third here and I think they may be even more of a threat than most people still realize. The QO distance trio of Conor Spaulding, Drew Lehner, and Evan Laratta are running at a new level and QO has hurdlers, jumpers and sprinters that will rack up serious points. I suspect we will see the Clarksburg boys in the top ten with points in the field that most people don't see, and Blake may be a darkhorse for a top ten finish with a strong presence on the track.

The Northwest girls were the overwhelming favorites with 40 out of 46 first place votes in the girls team voting. Last year Churchill upset Northwest by staying close on the track and outperforming them in the field events, but there is no team strong enough to pull off a similar feat this year. Expect Northwest to win easily with two of the finest runners in the nation, Britt Eckerstrom and Olivia Ekpone, leading the way. Fans didn't seem to know who to pick after Northwest so Kennedy got the next spot with Thea LaFond performing at a high level, but I propose the next few spots may go to Magruder, Walter Johnson, and Damascus. It's understandable not everyone is sold on Magruder's young team that lacks strength in distance events, but they are loaded in the sprints and have strength in the field with Jeida Robertson who leads the county in the long jump so far. WJ's distance duo of Anna Bosse and Camille Bouvet are similar to B-CC's Ava Farrell and Alex Doll, but WJ also had Laura Dally performing well in the hurdles and field. Damascus covers all of the events as well as just about anybody, though we haven't seen as much of Jordan Pitchford as we had this time last year. Like with the boys, I think Clarksburg and Blake are the darkhorses to break into the top ten with Clarksburg possibly even in the top five. Abbey Daley and Bailee Freeman could potentially score as many individual points as any team duo out there, so I am surprised fans overlooked the Coyotes.