By Ryan MinkAs Gaithersburg science teacher Ms. Aranda Brown watched one of her students, Antonio Palmer, dash around Magruder’s track in the 4A West Regional finals Thursday in the 800-meter dash, she saw a distinct sparkle.
It was Palmer’s braces. And Brown adamantly claimed she could only see them because Palmer was actually smiling as he ran around the track.
“I don’t think I ever smile,” Palmer said – while smiling.
Palmer finally conceded that his teacher could have been right. After all, he did post a blazing 1:53.66 to win the 800 and a 49.36 in the 400-meter dash. Both times were personal records.
“It was a good day,” Palmer said. “I was relaxed today. I was real focused.”
Palmer’s female counterpart in the 800, Whitman’s Morgane Gay, continued to show she’s not just a long distance runner. Gay, who excelled in cross country and in the mile last year, posted a 2:15.4 to take first place.
“Normally I’m more of a distance,” Gay said. “People have been asking me why I haven’t been doing that. [The 800 is] the only event where it’s hard for me. It’s really hard the entire race. It’s more like a sprint. I like that.”
Even Gay’s coach, Steve Hays, wants Gay to run the mile instead of the 800. Gay said she started having some problems in the mile during the indoor season and felt good with the 800 so she made the choice to focus on the 800 during the outdoor season and it has paid off. Hays, nevertheless, still tried to convince Gay to run the mile on Thursday.
“He was against it a lot,” Gay said. “I think he still is.”
Walter Johnson distance specialist Chris Moen stuck to his event and won the 1600 meter with a time of 4:22.2. Quince Orchard’s Neal Darmody took the lead during the third 400-meter lap, passing the favored Moen down the stretch.
“On the third lap I was getting a little sluggish,” Moen said. “I was just kind of falling asleep. Neal took it and I didn’t respond it to it that well.”
Maybe Moen didn’t respond well right away, but it didn’t take him long as he passed Darmody back midway through the final lap. But Quince Orchard kept the pressure on, challenging Moen down the final stretch and forcing him to look back and hit another level during the final 50 meters.
“On the last lap I got some energy back in my legs and started feeling pretty good,” Moen said. “I just wanted to qualify for states, get the win, move on. … I’m going to have to come into states with a much more excited mentality.”
Perhaps most excited of the day went to Quince Orchard’s Caleb Malone, who took first place in the 110-meter hurdle qualifiers and 300-meter hurdles. Malone took second place in both events at the Montgomery County track championships.
Malone said he was angry after the county meet. He stayed after practice several times this past week to work on his form.
“It just made me work a lot harder,” Malone said. I know that counties was a big upset. I was supposed to take first. … It just paid off. I felt like I’ve got to win.”
The runner to win the most events was Wootton freshman Olivia Ekpone, who took first in the 100, 200 and 400-meter dashes. Ekpone competed against girls her own age in the Junior Olympics, but has lined up next to upperclassmen all this season.
“It’s very nerve-wracking actually,” Ekpone said. “It’s very intimidating to see the seniors who have had more experience than I have. … Just running out here with the big athletes, even though it can be pretty intimidating at times you get good competition and you get pushed a lot.”
by Dante InfernoThe second day of the 4A West regional meet at Magruder high school brought slightly overcast skies and very humid temperatures. The temperature was in the high 70’s, but it was just very uncomfortable.
The first day had very different conditions with cool temperatures and a slight breeze. In the 3200 relays, the Walt Whitman girls held off a fast charging Northwest team in 9:20.29. Four teams broke 10 minutes in this race. The boys race was even closer with Chris Moen of Walter Johnson running down Dave Laratta of Quince Orchard to win the boys race in 8:01.9 to 8:03.0. Winston Churchill was third in 8:10.58 and three other teams broke 8:20 in the race.
Olivia Ekpone of Wootton was the fastest qualifier in the girls 100 dash at 12:19 with Katie Wolf of Churchill and Amanda Washington of Gaithersburg the next fastest qualifiers. The boys sprint was led by Mohammad Mansaray of Blair in 11.14. Teammate Kingsley Asare was second at 11.21.
The boys 110 hurdle qualifiers were led by Caleb Malone of Quince Orchard at 15.51, while Katherine Salke of Sherwood led the women at 15.50.
The 200 had Ekpone again in the lead at 24.96 and Mansaray led another teammate Jonathan Haughton in the 200 at 22.39 – 22.43.
Britt Eckerstrom of Northwest led six qualifiers to the state meet in the girls 3200 with a 11:11.38. Jessie Rubin, Wootton, Debbie Isen and Liza Schalch, Whitman, Abby Spitler of Gaithersburg and Aimee Moores of Quince Orchard also qualified.
Solomon Haile of Sherwood took the boys 3200 in a quick 9:22.4 ahead of qualifiers Neal Darmody and Jeremiah Joson of Quince Orchard, Andrew Palmer of Whitman, Brian Graves of Walter Johnson and Kyle Balderson of Sherwood. All six runners broke 10 minutes.
The Wooton girls won the 800 relay in 1:42.93 and Blair won the boys race by four seconds over Gaithersburg in 1:28.57.
In the field events, Ebou Touray of Springbrook won the boys high jump at 6-04 over Darius Ray of Magruder. Sean Stanley, Gaithersburg took the shot put at 58-00.75 and Ray came back to win the long jump at 21-00.25.
The girls field event winners were Suzanne Falk of Wootton in the triple jump at 36-01.5 and Arleigh Rose of Sherwood in the discus at 124-06, thirteen feet further than Cori Talley of Blake.
Meet director Nathan Timm of Magruder says today’s meet will be over in 3 hours. The coaches meeting went off at the scheduled time of 3:30 and the first race of the afternoon the hurdle finals started promptly at 4:00PM.
In the finals of the girls 100 hurdles Amira Polite of Churchill won a close race over Katherine Salke of Sherwood in 15,18. Caleb Malone of Quince Orchard took the lead at the third hurdle and held off Owen Cain of Gaithersburg for the win in a highly competitive race.
Olivia Ekpone of Wootton ran away from the field in the girls 100 dash, while Zach Boodie of Springbrook outleaned favorite Mohammed Mansary of Blair in 11.01.
Girls 1600 – 1st heat leaders 400 Lindsay Blank, Sherwood (1:17.8); 800 Blank (1:26.2/2:43.7); 1200 Blank (1:34.3/4:18.0); 1600 Blank (1:33.0/5:51.0).
2nd heat – 400 Alyssa Henshaw, Northwest (1:13.7); 800 Henshaw (1;25.3/2:39.0); 1200 Henshaw (1:27.1/4:06.1); 1600 Henshaw (1:19.5/5:25.6).
3rd heat – 400 Johanna Gretschel, Blair (1:15.8); 800 Gretschel (1:19.1/2:34.9); 1200 Leslie Morrison, Whitman (1:17.8/3:52.9); Morrison (1:13.9/5:06.9) Eight girls qualify for the state meet in this event!
Boys 1600 – 1st heat 400 Luke Smith, Wootton (1:08.7); 800 Willy Wise, Springbrook (1:16.6/2:25.3); 1200 Wise (1:15.5/3:40.9); 1600 Wise (1:15.0/4:55.9).
2nd heat - 400 Sei Masuoka, Churchill (1:05.7); 800 Masuoka (1:08.3/2:14.1); 1200 Sam King, Churchill (1:11.9/3:25.9); 1600 King (1:07.5/4:33.6)
3rd heat – 400 Chris Moen, Walter Johnson (1:05.14), Moen (1:08.13/2:13.27); Darmody takes lead on backstretch, Moen gets it back at gun lap (1:04.5/3:17.8); Joson, Quince Orchard almost runs down Moen in last 50, but Moen finds another gear and holds him off (1:03.95/4:22.2).
Girls 400 - 1st heat – Latasha Moore, Springbrook (1:03.5); 2nd heat – Teresa Russell, Sherwood (1:03.3); 3rd heat – Nenna Akapaete, Springbrook (1:00.2); 4th heat – Olivia Ekpone, Wootton passes everyone in the first 200 off the stagger to win in 56.0.
Boys 400 – 1st heat – Jahrett Butler, Northwest (58.12); 2nd heat – Brandon Simms, Blake (54.8); 3rd heat - Zach Shapiro, Whitman (52.8); 4th heat – Kye Hopkins, Sherwood (51.2); 5th heat – Louis Varella, Blair in a close battle with Antonio Palmer of Gaithersburg (49.02-49.36).
Girls 300 Hurdles – 2nd heat - Shannon McGuire, Northwest (50.1); 3rd heat – Cindy Beard, Northwe