GAITHERSBURG AND NORTHWOOD turned in the top winning performances by county schools in last week's Gaithersburg Relays won by Fort Hunt. The Northwood distance medley team won where Mary Walsh hands off to Mary Jane Drengwitz. Journal Photos by Liz Bouve.
This Saturday's Woodward Relays will feature the largest field ever in the meet with 18 boys teams and 17 girls teams entered.
Beginning at 9:30, 14 events for boys, five for girls, the open steeplechase and a coed relay will fill the day.
According to meet director Greg Dunston, the two-mile relay should be the class event of the day with Whitman out to break its best effort of 7:54, challenged by Churchill, Magruder, Georgetown Prep and Richard Montgomery.
CHURCHILL, WITH STRONG competition from Prep, is the team favorite in the meet.
Richard Brody of Whitman and Dave Hall of Churchill will be the keys in the mile relay with Prep and Kennedy entering strong teams in the event.
Vic Davis of Richard Montgomery is healthy again and should be a big factor in the sprints. The Rockets will also be relying on pole vaulter Tim Downs.
Gaithersburg is the favored entry in the girls events, coming off a strong third-place showing in their own relays last Saturday.
"THE LEVEL OF competition was super," said Gaithersburg coach Herb Tolbert of his meet, "and we did exactly what we expected to do. You have to be realistic. We knew the others were tough."
The others Tolbert was referring to were Fort Hunt of Virginia and Coolidge of D.C. Fort Hunt took three first and three thirds to win with 50 points. Coolidge totalled 33 and Gaithersburg 26.
One of Fort Hunt's victories, the shuttle hurdle relay, was by the clock a tie with Gaithersburg and it was given the win. Running the 44.9 for the Federals were Karen Beck, Karon Tallgren, Diane Ewers and Debbie Bragg. For Gaithersburg Nancy Smith, Denise Huson, Gail Hickman and Kathy Konig placed the closest second of their careers.
NORTHWOOD TOOK TWO FIRSTS, winning the two mile relay and the distance medley. The same four girls - Debbie Murray, Mary Jane Drengwitz, Ruth Drengwitz and Mary Walsh - won the two events for the Trojans.
In the distance medley they clocked 13:06.2, battling Coolidge's 13:07.8 but worrying little about third-place Fort Hunt's 13:53.4. The Indians' 10:12.3 easily won the two-mile race, leading Kennedy's 10:20.2 and Fort Hunt's 10:28.5.
Coolidge took the sprint medley with a 1:49.9, running Sheila Ingram, Deborah Borgess, Schydona Rudisill and Lalani Kelly. Einstein, with Carol Ward, Patty Polk, Ellen Kaiser and Claudia Martin, was second at 1:52.2, sneaking to the finish ahead of Fort Hunt's 1:52.5.
Fort Hunt just won the 880 relay as Terry Cox, Janie Phawtz, Laura Portasik and Linda Portasik ran a 1:48.5 to beat Coolidge's 1:48.8. Gaithersburg was third at 1:50.5.
The Virginia team's third triumph came in the mile, clocking a 4:09.3 run by Phawtz, Ewers, Cox and Portasik. Severna Park and Gaithersburg finished second and third in the mile with a 4:09.9 and 4:10.5, respectively.
Prep's track fortunes shone in the Landon Relays last weekend, the Little Hoyas breaking five meet records. Dean Drewyer was one of the meet's outstanding performers, running on three winning relays, and he will be back at Woodward where he and John Donegan won the cross country relay last fall.
Paint Branch won two events at Landon after winning the team title at Palotti a week earlier. The Panthers won the long jump with a combined 38-7 1/2 and then Tom Smith, Kevin Moore, Mike Shaw and Mark Shaw ran a record 44.5 in the 440-relay.
Good Counsel won the high jump and the 880, the latter run in 1:32.7 by John Poulos, Phil Kalarakis, Noel Patel and Dennis Marchitelli.
Bullis, paced by Dave Hellekjaer's 162-4 performance, shattered the discus record with a total of 307-9.
Prep's victories came in the four-mile relay (18:55.4), two-mile relay (8:36.9), distance medley (10:59.7), mile relay (3:30.4), and sprint medley (3:43.9).
Drewyer ran on the two-mile, four-mile and distance medley squads. Also in on the victorious performances were Mark Sullivan, Tom Raskauskas and Anthony Desir in the four-mile; Desir, Plank and Donegan in the two-mile; and Bill O'Donnell, Donegan and Raskauskas in the distance medley.
Running the winning mile were Bill Dahut, Fernando Murias, Pat Haley and David Saunders while Mike Maier, Jim Higgins, Saunders and Tom Soban won the sprint medley.
Gaithersburg shuttle hurdle team tied for the finish with Kathy Konig running the anchor leg. Journal Photos by Liz Bouve.
Pusey, Lyn. "Relays Ready at Woodward." Montgomery Journal, 8 Apr. 1976, p. B6. Transcribed by: Kevin Milsted 09/25/2023
