After being delayed for a week, the 4A State Championships were well worth the wait. It seemed like nearly every race on the track went right down to the wire, and there were plenty of upsets and breakout performances from all around.
RECAP:
The meet kicked off with the girls 4x800, which, as expected, turned into a two-team showdown between Walter Johnson and B-CC. The two teams had traded victories at the Montgomery County Championships and 4A West Regional Championships. Heading into the final leg, the B-CC girls held a slim lead, but Walter Johnson's Emily Murphy ran a solid anchor leg to surpass B-CC and earn the victory. Their winning time of 9:37.91 was the fastest at the 4A Indoor State Championships since 2011.
However, where the girls 4x800 was a two-team battle, the boys 4x800 was a wide open free-for-all. Five teams were in the mix the entire way (four finished within three seconds of each other, and Suitland would have too had their anchor not dropped the baton on the final lap). Ultimately, it was Howard and their anchor, Erik Jenks, who kicked past the field in the final 100 meters to secure the title. The Howard boys never led for a second of the race until the final turn when Jenks went from third to first and held off the rest of the competition. The entire race had the Sportsplex buzzing with excitement, and was definitely one of the best races of the day.
The girls 300 was the source of great suspense. Digital Harbor's Tylar Colbert won the fast heat with a time of 41.49, but those who had been watching the scoreboard during the first heat realized that Northwest's Cori Brown may have run faster. It took a little while for the official results to be released, but when they were, a triumphant raising of the arms from Northwest coach Robert Youngblood signaled the win for Brown. She's just a freshman, and Colbert is a sophomore, so we'll look forward to more close races between the two in the future.
A similar situation arose in the boys 300 when Springbrook's Mayen McClain dropped a 35.69 in the first heat. In the second heat, however, Flowers' Brian Nelson followed his 4A East regional victory with a state title in a time of 35.45, edging out McClain. Nelson's day was just getting started at this point.
Then came the 1600. Annapolis' Maria Coffin was the heavy favorite and she showed no intention of easing up on the gas pedal. Through 400 meters she had already created a sizeable gap between herself and the competition, one that she carried all the way to the victory in a time of 5:03.14. Her sister, freshman Anna Coffin, finished third behind Walter Johnson's Emily Murphy. The field was also incredibly deep, featuring nine girls under 5:25 (previous season totals: 4, 5, 7, 4, and 6).
The boys 1600 was round one of the battle between two of the best distance runners in the state, Dulaney's Eric Walz and Richard Montgomery's Rohann Asfaw. The race started off at a crawling pace and slowly picked up as Quince Orchard's Liam Walsh took the lead for the middle laps. As expected, the race was decided in what was basically a 200-meter sprint between Walz and Asfaw at the end, one that Walz ended up winning with a time of 4:24.79.
It was anybody's guess at to who would win the girls 500, as the field was loaded with talent from the 4A East region. Flowers' Oluchi Ike had won the race at the 4A East Regional Championship, but at the state championships it was Bowie's Felicia Haidara who pulled out the win with a time of 1:17.92. Ike's teammate, freshman Dejah Grant, finished third in the race, which was the highest finish for a 4A freshman girl in the 500 since Oxon Hill's Deseree King finished third at the 2007 indoor state championships.
The boys 500 featured one of the closest finishes in state meet history between DuVal's Gerald Amobi and Suitland's Nikolas Thomas. Amobi held the lead heading into the last lap, but Thomas was ready to strike as he usually does with a blazing fast final lap. Thomas reduced the gap to virtually nothing, and to the naked eye the finish looked like a dead tie. In fact, it almost was a dead tie. The official results list Amobi the winner by one thousandth of a second - 1:06.536 to 1:06.537, and it's possible that those numbers were rounded and the actual result was even closer. It was truly a great race to watch and a finish that will be remembered for quite some time.
Up next were the 55 dash and hurdle finals. DuVal's Madeleine Akobundu had won the prelims in both events and she kept right on rolling in the finals. She hit a personal best in the hurdles at 8.19 for the win, and then came right on back to win the 55 dash in another personal best of 7.14. Winning both races must be a DuVal thing, because the last 4A girl to win both events at the state championships was Mobolaji Adeokun, also from DuVal, back in 2012.
Even after finishing third in the prelims, there wasn't much doubt that Northwest's Shyheim Wright would pull out the victory in the boys 55 hurdle finals. And while his final time of 7.39 wasn't as ridiculously-fast as last year's 7.27, Wright captured his second straight 4A indoor state championship in the 55 hurdles. This may not seem like an awe-inspiring accomplishment, but looking back on the history of Maryland indoor track, it kind of is. By winning back-to-back state championships in the indoor hurdles, Wright became the first 4A athlete to do so since Rocky McMillan of Old Mill did it way back in 1991 and 1992. The hurdles may be the hardest event to find continued success in and Wright has made it look pretty easy over the past few years.
Then, in the 55 dash finals, Bowie's newest sprinter star Tajh Gilchrist blew away the competition with a 6.35. When it comes to raw speed, nobody in the state of Maryland does it better than Gilchrist and he showed why at the state championships, dropping a U.S. #9 time in the 55 dash.
After the sprint events was one of the most highly-anticipated races coming into the state meet: the girls 3200. Annapolis' Maria Coffin was striving for her second state title of the day after her win in the 1600, but standing in her way was a trio of Montgomery County girls led by Paint Branch's Bethlehem Taye, who had gone nearly a full calendar year since she had last lost a 3200 (the 2015 indoor state championship). Not even two laps into the race, the four girls had separated themselves from the rest of the field, running well under 11:00 pace. The group stayed together for more than half of the race before Einstein's Ciciely Davy decided to make her move. Both Taye and Coffin responded, but the 5:03 1600 may have taken something out of Coffin because she never did catch back up to Taye, who won with a time of 10:53.03. To put this fantastic race into perspective: Walter Johnson's Abbey Green finished third with a time of 10:58.16, which would have won every 4A indoor championship dating back to 2008. This year, however, it was only good enough for third place.
Next up was round two of the Walz-Asfaw battle, this time in the boys 3200 in which Walz was the defending indoor state champion. Once again, neither of them seemed eager to push the pace, so Severna Park's Andrew Forsyth (who had won the 4A Central Regional Championship after a bell-lap mixup) led for the majority of the race. However, when it came to the final 400 meters, Walz and Asfaw surged ahead, setting up another final-lap sprint for the win. Once again, Walz was able to pull out the victory, with Asfaw and Forsyth finishing close behind in second and third place, respectively. Walz's double marked the first time in three years that a 4A boy won both the 1600 and 3200 at the indoor state championships (Vincent Ciattei did it in 2013).
After the 3200s, C.H. Flowers began to take dominate the meet on both sides. The order of Flowers-Northwest-Bowie was the same for both the girls and boys 4x200, with the margin of victory on the boys side a mere four hundredths of a second. Northwest nearly came back to steal it from Flowers on the boys side behind a spectacular race from their anchor Josh Netterville, but the Flowers boys held them off for the win.
The 800 was more of the same for Flowers, at least on the girls side. Oluchi Ike used the same strategy she has used all season with great results - create an early gap, and then don't let anyone catch you. Ike won the race wire-to-wire with a final time of 2:24.19, finishing ahead of a crowded pack that six girls within two seconds of each other.
The boys 800 winner, Liam Walsh, employed a much different strategy. After leading for much of the 1600, he decided to let the other runners set the pace for the first lap. Halfway through the race, he hit his stride, creating a wide gap that never really closed. He ended up winning the race by a second and a half with a time of 1:58.40.
The C.H. Flowers girls then came back from their win in the 4x200 to win the first heat of the 4x400 with a time of 4:03.27. All eyes were on the scoreboard during the second heat to see if their time would hold up, which it did. The Laurel girls won the second heat, but they weren't close to Flowers' winning time. In fact, Paint Branch, who finished second to Flowers in the slow heat, ended up finishing second overall with a time of 4:05.22. Ultimately, the relays helped the Flowers girls pull away and seal their team victory.
Just as the girls 4x400 was won from the slower heat, so was the boys 4x400. The Digital Harbor boys quietly lit up the track in the slower heat, dropping a time of 3:27.54. However, the second race was such a great one that many people didn't realize that Digital Harbor had actually won. The battle between Flowers and Suitland went right down to the wire, and Suitland nearly pulled it off in the final 100 meters. The two times were 3:28.17 and 3:28.20, respectively, giving the Digital Harbor boys the well-deserved victory.
The amazing thing about this race? The Flowers boys ended up losing the team score battle to Northwest by one point, 65 to 64. Had they won the 4x400 (and not Digital Harbor), they would have earned ten points instead of eight and beaten Northwest by one point. Instead, the Northwest boys got their "three-peat": three consecutive indoor state championships.
Their near-win wouldn't have been possible without the 1-2 combination of NanaKofi Appiah and Charles Monie in the boys shot put. They became the first teammates to finish first and second in the 4A indoor shot put since 2004.