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Republished with permission granted by The Washington Newspaper Publishing Co. LLC d/b/a MediaDC. Back to Montgomery Journal articles
Einstein Boys in Photo-finish for State Track Title
[Page C3] Track: 11 Champions In State Class A Meet
By Donna Niewiaroski
Special to the Journal
"And they're off...Einstein's off to a fast start, posting at least a furlong over the rest of the field as they round the first turn...but here comes Milford Mill charging past everybody on the outside, look at them go, they've passed the Titans down the backstretch and are ahead by a nose...Einstein's not giving up though, they're fighting back and they're fighting hard...they've got Milford Mill at the far turn, both are neck and neck, look at the strain - what determination. This is a real horse race folks
...Einstein did it, they're back in the driver's seat, coming out of the final turn the Titans have their chief opponents by a nose but Milford Mill isn't giving up either...it's Einstin, it's Milford Mill, it's Einstein's uh-oh, Einstein has dropped the...baton...this could be it folks, it looks like Milford, wait, Einstein's making up the difference, here they come.
...This is incredible folks, both teams want this state championship bad, and nobody's about to step aside
...Einstein's moving, but they haven't much left of the track...They did it, they caught Milford Mill at the tape, two teams have tied for the state track title for the first time in six years, what a race, folks, what a race."
Officially Einstein and Milford Mill will share the state boys track title in the record books, each scoring 77 points, but the Baltimore team walked home with the trophy Saturday because it won the coin toss. The Titans will get their first place Class A trophy in the mail.
"It was a great meet anyway," claimed a jubilant Einstein coach, Jim Brown. "They ran their hearts out. The guys are a little disappointed, they wanted the trophy all by themselves, but a tie is still a state champion."
"I knew what they had and Jim knew what we had," said Milford Mill coach Ed Bury. "But when I scored it out on paper, they had it by five points."
Einstein had led the battle most of the meet, holding an 18-point advantage after four events, 31-13. But Bury got some points he wasn't counting on and the Titans' margin gradually dwindled to four after the 60 yard hurdles, 47-43. One event later, following an eight-point performance by Milford Mill's high jumper, Einstein's advantage turned into a disadvantage, 47-51.
Bern Altman and Dave Mills came through with a third and a fifth in the next event, the two-mile, which gave Einstein control of the meet again, but only by four, 55-51. Then came the event which Bury considered the turning point for his team, the 1000.
Altman had to come back after just 20 minutes and hang on long enough to get a first or second and the score stood at 63-61, Einstein, following a Milford Mill-Einstein finish, in that order, in the 880 relay.
Milford Mill's contestant in the four-and-a-half-lap event, an inexperienced junior, held the sixth seed without much hope for improving his station against the likes of Walter Johnson's Paul Kolb, Altman, Seneca Valley's Mike Hoppes, and Woodward's Scott Hildebrand.
But David Progett was fresh and most of his opponents weren't, each having competed in at least two other events prior ot the 1000. With 100 yards to go, Progett made his move passing both Hoppes and Hildebrand in a final spurt that netted third.
Therefore, the Titans were up by only four, as opposed to the 9 to 10 point spread they had anticipated going into the final event, the mile relay. Milford Mill held the first seed, South Carroll second, and Einstein third.
Einstein's Chris Yakabe led the field through the first quarter, but the Titans lost their advantage in the second. Third leg Brad Hansen waited in the exchange zone, ready to get the baton im third place and figuring on making up the five-yard difference in his lap. What he wasn't figuring on was just how hard he'd have to run to make up the difference which grew from five to 15 in a matter of seconds. During the exchange, Hansen got cut off by another runner and dropped the baton. It cost the Titans any hope of getting back into the race. That is - until Hansen sprinted through a 56-second quarter and anchor Mike Scott turned in a 50.5 split to cross the line in third.
"They were really smoking," said Brown. "Anytime you run a 50.5 indoors you know you're moving. It's unfortunate, because the way things looked, we probably could've run a 3:29, instead of a 3:35; but these things happen."
In addition to his silver medal in the 1000, Altman turned in a gold medal performance in the mile, catching Kolb at the tape for first in 4:20.7.
Kolb also added a gold medal to his collection, taking the 1000 in 2:19.4
Hansen grabbed another of the county's six state first places, leading the contestants in the 600 to a 1:13.9 winning time. He also took second to Milford Mill's Tony Kiser in the 60 hurdles.
Paint Branch's Terence Matthews won the shot put with a heave of 47-7 1/4 and Woodward's two-mile relay team of Dave Fries, Bill Rider, Mike Haggerty and Hildebrand rounded out the list with a 8:16.2 for first.
Hoppes coupled with teammate Eddie Menis for a 1-2 finish in the two-mile, 9:24.6 and 9:42.8.
Seneca Valley's girls put on a valiant effort, but could only manage 56 points for second place against Central's powerful contingent, which ran up 94 1/2.
Senior Theresa Brown led the Eagles surge, winning both the mile and 1000 going away and took a third in the 600. The Eagles' distance ace breezed through a 5:10.4 mile, outpacing Woodward's Renate Hellmann by 13 seconds. Brown went on to overpower Central's Karen Woods by four seconds in 2:44.6 in the 1000.
Biding her time at the back of the pack for the first two laps, Brown started moving up on the leaders, one runner at a time. As if Brown owned a private 70-mph wind at her back, the diminutive blonde blasted past Woods and Catonsville's Donna Kirstukas at gun lap and broke the tape with a smile.
Teammate Peggy Hoppes also grabbed a gold, winning the two-mile run in 11:40.1 after running by herself for three-quarter of the race. Magruder's Debbie Wortman took second six seconds later.
Montgomery County cornered two of the three relays. Woodward won the two-mile relay and Paint Branch took a hard-fought 880-relay.
Woodward anchor Hellmann overcame a lost lead to cross the line over three seconds aheads of Central with a 10:05.4 in the two-mile relay. Karen Blain, Cindy Bailey and Kathy Harper preceded her.
Credit for Paint Branch's victory in the 880 relay rests solely with anchor-leg Laura Novell. Overcoming almost half a lap, Novell caught Central's Pam Carter at the line to win by a tenth, 1:49.8-1:49.9. The rest of the Panthers' lineup includes Sharon Pitt, Angel House and Frederica Whitfield.
Walter Johnson's Suzanne Alele accounted for the final county gold, leaping to 5-1 in the high jump.
Whitman's Eddy Eisenberg was the only bright spot for the county in a record-strewn AA state contest. Eisenberg cleared 13-0 in the pole vault, six inches higher than his nearest competitor, Laurel's Darren Rittenhouse. What gives Eisenberg's victory an added twist, however, is that he almost wasn't allowed to compete Saturday. He didn't participate in the district competition due to illness and in years past would have automatically been banned from the state competition. But a new rule states that if an athlete has made the cut-off, 10-6 in this case, but was prevented from competing in the district round because of illness, then he can enter state competition as the last seed.
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