Editor's note: Mocorunning conducted the county championship poll before the release of the meet entries.
Below you will read the poll results compiled and written before the release of the meet entries.
Between May 1 and May 8, MoCoRunning.com conducted an online poll to find out the county championship fan
favorites. Participants were instructed to select their favorites in each event and rank the top teams for the
outdoor county championship meet. 75 valid submissions were received, but voters were not required to vote for
every category.
The county champion favorites are listed with the percentage of votes received.
How many individual records (boys and girls) will be tied or broken?
4.0
Rk
Girls School
Poll Points
1
Clarksburg
137
2
Northwest
131
3
Walter Johnson
67
4
Paint Branch
34
5
Damascus
25
Avg Answer
Winning Girls Team Score
113.5
Girls Analysis (Prior to release of meet entries)
The girls team race looks to be the storyline of the day. Clarksburg is the veteran squad with several seniors
looking to go out on top. Northwest has youth on its side with championship-caliber freshmen complimenting the
upperclassmen. Clarksburg edged out Northwest in the fan poll 137-131 which is indicative of the divisiveness of
fan opinion on the matter. The next best team garnered only 67 "poll points."
The Clarksburg girls are led by Alexus Pyles and Justina
Ababio. Ababio currently leads Moco girls with a 37'5 mark in the shot put, and she has won three straight county
titles in the event (2015 indoor/outdoor, 2016 indoor). She also won the discus fan poll despite only ranking
sixth in the event so far this season; the county leader is Einstein's Dalina Julien who threw 117'5 in a victory
at the Howard County Spring Classic earlier this season.
Alexus Pyles has a ridiculous 13 individual county titles indoors and outdoors and could add at least two more
this season in both the 100 and 300 hurdles. She already holds the county record in the 300 hurdles and could
shoot for the record in the 100 hurdles. She could also be a leg on the 4x100 and 4x200 relays, both of which won
the fan poll. However, it's Northwest who leads the county in both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays so far this
season.
The Northwest girls have plenty of talent, led by
outstanding freshman Taylor Wright. She won the fan voting in the 100, 200, and triple jump, and rightfully so
considering she leads the county in all three events (by fairly wide margins, except for the triple jump). The
Northwest girls' key to success is going to be the jumps - Leondra Correia currently leads the county in the long
jump with a shot at the county record of 18-07.75 set back in 1987, and Stephanie Bateky won the fan poll in the
high jump. It's going to be interesting to see how Coach Youngblood divides the events up between his athletes in
the quest for a team title.
You're also not going to want to miss the girls 3200, featuring Paint Branch's Bethlehem Taye, Walter Johnson's
Abigail Green and (possibly) Einstein's Ciciely Davy. Both Taye and Green have run 10:37 so far this season,
though Taye has the advantage after winning the head-to-head matchup all throughout indoors. In fact, Taye hasn't
lost a 3200 since the state championship during the 2015 indoor season. Between Taye, Green, and Annapolis' Maria
Coffin, running fans across Maryland should drop whatever they're doing when the three race, as they are some of
the best to have ever done it in Maryland's history.
Meet records that could fall: I'll probably bet my right arm that Sally Glynn's 11:00.5 3200 record is going down,
as it did at the indoor county championships. Alexus Pyles could challenge her own record in the 300 hurdles and
possibly even the 14.05 all-time mark in the 100 hurdles.
Editor's note: An error was discovered in the girls team vote tabulation shortly after this article was first
published. The error has been corrected.
Name
Comments
Magruder Lover
Monday, May 09, 2016 10:15:06 PM
Stephanie Davis would have won back to back 200m Titles had she still been at Magruder.
The Clarksburg girls are led by Alexus Pyles and Justina
Ababio. Ababio currently leads Moco girls with a 37'5 mark in the shot put, and she has won three straight county
titles in the event (2015 indoor/outdoor, 2016 indoor). She also won the discus fan poll despite only ranking
sixth in the event so far this season; the county leader is Einstein's Dalina Julien who threw 117'5 in a victory
at the Howard County Spring Classic earlier this season.
The Northwest girls have plenty of talent, led by
outstanding freshman Taylor Wright. She won the fan voting in the 100, 200, and triple jump, and rightfully so
considering she leads the county in all three events (by fairly wide margins, except for the triple jump). The
Northwest girls' key to success is going to be the jumps - Leondra Correia currently leads the county in the long
jump with a shot at the county record of 18-07.75 set back in 1987, and Stephanie Bateky won the fan poll in the
high jump. It's going to be interesting to see how Coach Youngblood divides the events up between his athletes in
the quest for a team title.