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Hughes Leads Baron Girls At the Wire
Photo caption: Journal Photo by Linda White. CHAMPIONS JOAN GEIBEL (above left on right) and Donna Lake are a contrast of reactions after winning their state A League track titles. Geibel of Walter Johnson won the 440 in 58.8 while Einstein's Lake took both the discus and shot put titles.
Journal Staff
A dramatic come-from-behind victory in the two-mile relay sparked the performance of the B-CC girls track team and led them to the state AA track title, making them the first team in the history of Maryland to win both the girls' cross country and spring track crowns.
Carolyn Hughes was the cause for the dramatics in the two-mile relay as her anchor leg pulled it all together for the Barons.
Crossland led the race for the first three legs with B-CC back in fourth place when Hughes got the baton. Associate coach Pete Wade describes what happened on the Dundalk track:
"SHE'S ONLY A sophomore but she's a very cool runner and she stayed in there and was calm. She knew that she was gaining on the others and just exploded with 220 yards to go and started passing people. She just blew right by them and there was nothing that the leader could do. She just didn't have any push left in her. That [victory] carried the girls the rest of the way."
Hughes made coming from behind a habit on the hot and muggy afternoon as she made up considerable distance to beat Sophia Sandifer of Annapolis at the wire of the 880 (2:20.8) and was given a second in the mile run although she and champion Debbie Pavik of Delaney practically crossed the line together. Hughes ran a 5:11 and Wade commented that, "if she'd had another three feet on the track she'd have won."
The rest of the Barons 70 1/2 points (to 62 for runner-up Crossland of Prince George's County) came from:
Chris Culver who was second in the high jump, fourth in the shot put and fifth in the discus; Laurie Swoft, third in the high jump; Pauline Bonner, third in both the 100 and 220; and Melissa Smoot, third in the two-mile.
Most of the team that combined to win the state title will be back for one or two more years. Bonner, hurdler Frances Jackson and Ann Lawrence are the only seniors.
THE ONLY THING that went awry for B-CC at the state meet was the trophy that they'd worked so hard to deserve - it was broken. But the leg on the runner atop the prize can be fixed.
Northwood, which had won the district title the week before, placed fourth in the state A League meet at Magruder, the first Montgomery County team in the standings with 41 points to winner Old Mill's 68.
Mary Jane Drengwitz, one of four seniors on the team, won the two-mile (11:49.2) for the Indians' only state title but their relay teams came through with points to help the strong showing.
Mary Jane and Ruth Drengwitz, Connie Engle and Cathy Cole were fourth in the two-mile relay (won by North Hagerstown in 9:51.4 with Kennedy second); Valerie Stutman, Marjorie Middleton, Julie Poindexter and Pam Barnes were sixth in the 880 relay (won by Old Mill in 1:44.1); and Middleton, Barnes, Stutman and Julie Wright placed sixth in the mile relay (won by Oxon Hill in 4:02.7).
THE LATTER TWO relays were the efforts of two sophomores and two juniors, prompting coach John Ralston to comment that, "They did a really good job because we have a really young team. A lot of them ran their best races of the year."
One thing that held the Northwood girls back was the injury suffered early in the meet to hurdler Vicki Brackman. Competing in the 100-meter hurdles, Brackman messed up her knee when she caught her trail leg on the third hurdle. "With her, we would have finished a lot higher," said Ralston, "but she just crashed into the hurdle and she would have finished at least second in the 100s, second or third in the 200s and fourth of fifth in the long jump."
Joan Geibel won the 440 for Walter Johnson with a 58.5 after taking the district titles in both the 440 and 880 but in the state she ran second in the 880 to Lanetia Minor of Largo. The Spartans finished fifth in the meet with 35 points.
Einstein's Donna Lake had a field events double with her championships in the shot put and discus. Lake had won the discus title as a junior and bettered her 1976 effort by 12 feet. Teammate Larry Rosen also took a double in the shot put and discus for the Titans, the first time that that has ever happened in the state track meet.
MAGGIE CAFFERY of Seneca Valley won the two-mile in the B League meet at Largo with a clocking of 12:27.0 while Sherwood's Doreen Maraffa took the mile title in 5:29.5.
"My feet feel like they are burning off," an exhausted Caffery said. "I saw that other girl coming after me, so I had to start running faster than I normally do much earlier."
Valerie Pearce of Damascus came in third in both the 200-meter and 100-meter hurdles while the Hornets' mile relay team was second, Donna Gruver was second in the 440 and Jeanne Kesner third in the discus. Debbie Simpson of Seneca Valley was third in the two-mile run and Sherwood was third in the two-mile relay.
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