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Relative to previous years, the turnout at this meet was very low with only twelve teams in all showing up. Montgomery County teams (Good Counsel and Walter Johnson) took advantage of the low turnout and evidently performed very well.
The Good Counsel girls won the 4x8. In an intense battle, the Good Counsel boys were able to live up to their girls. With 100 meters to go and a smile on his face, Pat Vaughan was able to fly by the Linganore anchor. Rob Bock led off that relay with a 2:03, brother Mike Bock split 2:05, Ian Mcdermott (who could not have possibly anticipated the difficulty of his upcoming races) 2:09 and anchor Pat Vaughan in 2:03 for an overall 8:24.
The Good Counsel girls followed up their 4x8 with another victory in the DMR. The Good Counsel boys looked to do the same but nationally ranked miler Chris Moen did not allow that. But first to mention, the DMR was unusually run. The 800 was first, followed by two 400's, and the last leg ran the 1600. Again leading off for Good Counsel was senior Rob Bock who split a 2:05, 5 seconds ahead of Walter Johnson sophomore Anthony Popiel and immediately established his relay as contenders to win. Mark Hamilton split a 53 and Bryson Harris of Walter Johnson split a 55. At this point Good Counsel was in a tight battle for first and had a large lead on elite miler Jared Schneider who bolted into the front pack. By the end of the second lap he got into the lead and stayed there until 50 meters to go. At this point he was having a tough time finishing and Mike Bock cruised past him and edged him out. Now, it was a showdown between Ian Mcdermott and Chris Moen for first place. Much to the frustration of Good Counsel fans, Moen hung on Mcdermott's shoulder until he finally started to pull away after two laps. Moen cruised in around a 4:36 and Mcdermott finished in around a 4:47. Good Counsel's DMR ran around 11:18 and Walter Johnson's around 11:07.
The SMR was again highlighted by Good Counsel. The guys won the SMR. However, their relay got disqualified because somebody (whose name shall not be enclosed to the public) swore. This should remind everybody who is reading this: do not swear at track meets at all!
The Good Counsel girls did not appear to be at full-strength for the 4x1600 meter relay, registering a disappointing fifth place. This allowed the Walter Johnson girls to shine. Leadoff Jennifer Spencer was in a battle for first place until she finally pulled away and ran the last 600 meters by herself. Second-leg Pamela Moriarty, third-leg Berna Garcia-Riege, and anchor Tiffany Lin perpetually increased their everlasting lead over the other relays. Their lead grew to over 100 meters due to the fact that each girl ran very well.
The guys' 4xmile was extremely interesting between Good Counsel and Walter Johnson because it appeared that each leg of each relay knew who would be anchoring for Walter Johnson. Both teams adjusted their strategy based on this.
Drew Collins of Good Counsel led off with a 4:45 putting them into the lead. Walter Johnson had already begun to suffer a deficit due to a valiant 5:01 effort by freshman Ishan Dey. Sam Rainard of Good Counsel followed through with a 4:55 and Jared Schneider ran a 4:49. David Sullivan of Good Counsel then split a 4:59 and Anthony Popiel of Walter Johnson split a 5:09. This allowed Good Counsel anchor Ian McDermott to start off his leg with a 100 meter lead over Chris Moen. Mcdermott started off very fast in around a 64 and you could tell by the expression on his face how hard he was working to try and "break" Moen. Moen went out, determined, in a 63. McDermott continued to push while Moen's next two laps were fairly slow. His second lap was a 71 and his third lap was around 71. Nonetheless, Mcdermott's lead was down to around 70 meters at this point. Moen started his kick with 400 meters left and it was obvious how he was continually gaining on Mcdermott. This inspired a grand amount of excitement from everybody there. When Moen had 150 meters left, Mcdermott was only about 25 meters away. Unfortunately, Mcdermott had too much left in the tank with 100 to go and Moen was unable to finish off what he started. Regretfully so, he simply had too much work left for him. Moen relaxed the last 40 meters and finished in a 4:28. Mcdermott split around a 4:47. Good Counsel's 4xmile ran about 19:24 and Walter Johnson's around 19:28.
As for the last event of the day, the 4x4, Good Counsel finished third. However, they again got disqualified but this time for their leadoff leg wearing an apparent "live strong" bracelet. Hassan Dixon split a 52.7, nonetheless which is very impressive considering he is only a freshman.
As for other highlights in the meet, Emily Vannoy of Thomas Johnson threw over 46 feet! I should emphasize that this is not a typographical error. This was the second farthest throw of the day out of all the boys and girls!
Team-wise, the Good Counsel girls scored 36 points, Walter Johnson girls 29 points. Good Counsel boys won and Walter Johnson boys scored 31 points.
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