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The Montgomery Journal
Little Poolesville comes up big again
Originally Published in The Montgomery Journal on Wednesday, February 20, 2002
By: Jim Crowley
Photographer: None


Republished with permission granted by The Washington Newspaper Publishing Co. LLC d/b/a MediaDC. Back to Montgomery Journal articles

Little Poolesville comes up big again
Indians win 2nd straight 2A/1A indoor track title

[Page B3] Indians set four records at 2A/1A

By JIM CROWLEY
Journal staff writer

LANDOVER - Montgomery County's smallest high school performed at Herculean proportions in the Class 2A/1A indoor track state championships at Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex.

Poolesville's girls track team set four new state 1A records Monday and claimed its second straight state crown in only its third year of competing indoors. The Indians breezed to a 69-48 win over runner-up Glenelg, while Central finished third with 42 points.

Sophomore Erin Moore played a part in three of the new records. Moore and junior teammate Christina Mann posted new marks in the 500-meter dash. Moore edged Mann by six-tenths of a second in 1:18.30 - marking the third consecutive championship final won by either runner. Mann beat Moore in the county 500 final, and Moore beat Mann in the 2A West's 500.

"Honestly, you can't say enough about them," Poolesville coach Scott Mathias said. "They train together, they work together, they're like best friends. It's hard to say enough about them."

"We're always pushing each other, and that's how it ended up," Moore said. "I came out thinking it was my last meet and giving it my all."

Mann and Moore were joined by Alisha Vaughn and Ashley Loh to form Poolesville's record-setting 4x200 team (1:47.27). Moore's 2:21.30 championship run in the 800 was a new record, as was Mann's 40.70 second 300-meter dash - a personal best by a full second.

The Poolesville girls were all smiles Monday. The Indians, second at counties and champions at 2A/1A West regionals, climbed back to the top of the state 2A/1A mountain. Now, perhaps, Mathias could get some rest.

"In all honestly it feels relaxing," Mathias said. "I didn't sleep last night. I was up every 30 minutes, waking up having dreams about having someone missing the meet or dropping the baton. There's no more to worry about. It's pretty exciting. We accomplished literally everything that I hoped we would. There wasn't a goal that we set out that we didn't get."

Poolesville made winning states look easy, but their results did not tell the story of the Indians' pre-meet nerves.

Repeating a state championship was more difficult than winning the first, Mann said.

"We were nervous if we were going to repeat. There was a lot of pressure, but everyone did really well today," Mann said. "Last year no one knew who we were. No one was even looking at us. This year were like the team to beat. Everyone was out saying, "If you beat no one else you have to beat Poolesville." It was pretty strenuous."

So was the competition.

But there was reason to be nervous, Mathias said, because his girls cared so much about winning. He told his girls beforehand that it could be their meet to win if the believed and executed properly.
"Looking at the teams we had to compete against, Glenelg had tremendous distance, Central had tremendous sprints, we had both," Mathias said. "And we were the only team that could really go across the board in all events. I told them we could score in more events than anyone else and the we didn't have to do anything we hadn't already done this year.

Poolesville sophomore Janelle Thompson placed third (5:26.90) and sixth in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs, respectively. Martha Moore scored the fifth-best high jump at 4-feet-10, and Ashley Loh placed fifth in the 300.

The Indians 4x400-meter relay team finished second (4:14.20), while their 4x800 team came in fifth.

Poolesville's boys team was led by senior miler Chris Earle, who won silver in the 1,600-meter final in 4:35.50.

Rockville sophomore Lasia Brown also won silver for her 9.25-second run in the 55-meter hurdles. It was the only medal won by a Ram at the state meet.




Crowley, Jim. "Little Poolesville comes up big again." Montgomery Journal, 20 Feb. 2002, p. B1+.
Transcribed by: Kevin Milsted 02/20/2020


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