Coaches' Complaints Are Urging Their Trackmen On

By Donna Niewiaroski
Special to the Journal

It was obvious at Saturday's county championship track meet that the coaches were readying themselves for the district and state meets to come. Complaints were the order of the day and nothing, not even a school record, would do.

"He took it out too slow, a 23.6, he took it out lazy," said Einstein coach Jim Brown of Mike Scott's 48.4 victory in the 400 meters. Forecasted as Scott's most difficult challenge of the season to date, Churchill's Steve Peshin, his major adversary, faded down the backstretch to a distant third in 49.8. Northwood's Bill Poindexter overtook Peshin for second in 49.4.

"I've talked with him and told him to pick that point and accelerate, he's got to start doing that if he's going to beat Morales in the 100," said Blair coach Bob Deffinbaugh of Norman Edwards' uncontested 100- 200 double. "Morales does that, which is how he beat him last time."

Although Edwards has had trouble with Luis Morales in the past and although the Oxon Hill senior poses the major stumbling block in Edwards' path for a state double, Blair's speedster didn't really have to find that acceleration point in either of his races on Saturday. The Jamaican-born junior had little difficulty keeping his uninjured status intact, which is both coach and athlete's main concern, since an injury prevented such an endeavor in last year's state competition, while posting a 10.7 100 victory. Scott and Northwood's Carlos Acker could not improve on their positions following a quick start and finished in 10.9 and 11.0 respectively.

The Golden Boy last week following his 47.9 personal record in the 400, Scott couldn't seem to do anything right this time as Brown was also dissatisfied with his performance in the 100. "The 100 is going to be his hardest race in the state, he probably won't have any trouble with the 200 and 400," Brown explained. "But he's not running as fast as he should be in the 100, he was doing 10.5-10.6 last year."

Edwards also utilized the advantage gained from a quick start in the 200 to outrun Northwood's Paul Johnson by 1.4 seconds with a 21.6. Springbrook's Andre Moten garnered third in 23.1.

Thwarted in their individual track events, Acker, Poindexter, and Johnson teamed up with jumper Scott Vlay and took out their frustrations with the area's second swiftest clocking in the 400 meter relay at 42.8. Also on Saturday, Oxon Hill turned in a 41.9, which would rank nationally according to the lastest issue of Track and Field News, in the Prince George's County meet.

Blair, the Indians major opposition in their quest for the county's top ranking in that event, led off with Edwards who opened a sizeable lead in the first 100 meters. Northwood's hand-offs, however, proved to be Blair's Waterloo, so to speak, and by the third leg, Northwood had established its supremacy. Anchor man Johnson, and third runner Poindexter appeared undiscernable from a distance as the baton exchanged hands with absolute no loss of motion and Northwood added the extra yards it needed to break the tape eight tenths ahead of Blair. Rockville turned in a 45.5 for third.

After a performance like that, you'd think Northwood coach Dan Reeks would have nothing but praise left for his 400 team. After the initial congratulations, however, as with the rest, the anxiety of the final weeks of competition for state berths crept through. "We really should be working more on handoffs, because we hardly ever do. I think last week the only time we did them was in the meet against RM," he said. "But we did a lot of work with handoffs in the beginning of the season. I guess all that work is just paying off."

In addition, Reeks also indicated a change in their end-of-season goal. A time that stood at 42.5 until Saturday has been lowered to a 41.9 in hopes of a national ranking. "I checked and the slowest run time that ranks so far is a 41.9," Reeks explained. "And the guys know they're that fast, so why not try to go for a national time."

The omission of team scores switched the emphasis from the county meet at Einstein High School from the pressure of getting team points to attempting to achieve personal bests.

Blair's Adrian Summers, only a team member as of two weeks ago, was hitting 48-feet consistently in the practice runs of the triple jump. Unable to duplicate the distance without scratching during the actual competition, the heavily taped senior popped a 45-4 3/4 to win the event with a season best. Seneca Valley's Terry Ridgeley cleared 44-10 7/8 for second, beating out Marc Lewis of Paint Branch by almost two feet.

Another personal record was run by Einstein's Dave Mills who switched positions with teammate Bern Altman and concentrated on the mile instead of the two-mile. Following his coach's pre-race strategy did the trick for Mills as he turned in a 4:22.9, over eight seconds ahead of Peary's Jim Anderson.

"I talked with Dave before the race," said Brown. "And I told him he had to run that third quarter. I wanted him to go through it in 65 and he did a 66, which was a little slow but okay." Mills lengthened his strides at the sound of the gun on the gun lap, opening his two yard lead over Anderson with each step. Anderson couldn't make up the deficit and Mills pushed on alone to the finish line, strengthening Einstein's chances for a 1-2 finish in the state competition in the mile.

Altman fell short of duplicating his teammate's effors in the two-mile, falling short of the victory by four tenths to Seneca Valley's Mike Hoppes. "I had the lead for a while," Altman remarked after the duel, "but Mike outkicked me on the last lap." The winning and runner-up times of 9:24.6 and 9:25.0 were well ahead of the rest of the pack, led by Woodward's James Camp who finished in 9:41.

Although different players were involved, the roles were reversed in the girls mile and two-mile events (actually the metric equivalents were run in both boys and girls meets, the 1600 and 3200). Sherwood's Theresa Pack, looking to repeat last weekend's victory at the Jennie Rush Memorial, underestimated her chief opponent's kick and determination.

In a close race for the entire field of entrants the top six hung together in a tight bunch through the first three laps. Pack and Louise Mallet of Rockville, runner up in their last encounted, began pulling away with Woodward's Renate Hellman close at their heels at the gun lap. Pack began her kick with 300 meters left in what appeared to be another sizeable victory for the Sherwood distance runner. Mallet wasn't about to give up as easily as last week, however, and turned on the speed around the final turn. Mallet caught Pack seconds from the finish line but her extra effort proved to be in vain as she was outleaned at the tape, 5:13.0 5:13.5. Hellman came across in 5:15.8, with Churchill's Kim Kokulis trailing by a second.

Kokulis had the field in the two mile beat with 800 meters to go and coasted to an 11:46. Mary Bodnar of Einstein, although a seemingly permanent fixture on Kokulis' shoulder throughout the initial portion of the race, faded to 11:51 for second, four seconds ahead of Cindy Raley of Rockville.

Peary's Mary Beth Golsen also managed to outrun the field of the 800 for the second week in a row, this time bettering her winning time by three seconds. Unwilling to employ the same tactics as last week, i.e. waiting until 100 meters remained before sprinting past Churchill's Cami Rogers, Golsen made sure the final outcome was determined well before the finish line. Pulling away from Hellman at the gun lap, Golsen went on to post a 2:20.4, two seconds in front of a swiftly closing Woodward runner. Northwood's Kathy Unger dropped 4.5 seconds off her previous best to capture third in 2:24.9.

Blair's sophomore sprint sensation Michelle Collins and teammate Jackie McGrowder provided the fans with their all too familiar "one-two" punch, sweeping the first two spots in both the 200 and 400.

Collins led both to season best clockings in the one-lap sprint, crossing the line in 55.8. McGrowder followed with a 59.0, securing second place by inches as Churchill's Cami Rogers, who strained a hamstring with her effort, followed by a second.

The twosome returned in the 200 with much the same method of operation: Collins scored another uncontested victory in 24.4 and McGrowder ecked out second by three tenths over Paint Branch's Laura Novell.

McGrowder soard to 18-1 1/8in the long jump, almost two feet ahead of runnerup Cherron Collins of Worthwood.

Photo 1 (uncredited): Eddy Eisenber of Whitman won the county pole vault, covering 13-feet even at Einstein
Photo 2 Journal Staff Photo by Linda White: Bill Poindexter of Northwood won the boys high jump, clearing 6-feet even, at the non-scored county high school track meet. The district meets, qualifiers for the state meets, will be this weekend.
Photo 3 Journal Staff Photo by Linda White: Randy Inness of Blair won the 300-eter intermediate hurdles with a clocking of 40.1 in last Saturday's county track meet at Einstein High School.