3A West
Photo by Craig Amoss
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The 3A West Regional boys race featured a rematch between two pairs of teammates who have grown very familiar throughout the 2016 season. Back at the Brunswick Invitational, Linganore's Michael Belmaggio and Micah Hewitson beat Poolesville's Andrew Lent and Ryan Lockett. At the Howard County Invitational Lent slid in between Belmaggio and Hewitson. The narrative switched dramatically at the Urbana Invitational when Hewitson dominated the rest of the field, with Lockett finishing second.
The fourth edition of the Poolesville/Linganore matchup, however, went much differently. Junior Ryan Lockett - coming off a second-place finish at the Montgomery County Championships - dominated, breaking the course record that Hewitson had set at the Urbana Invitational. Lent finished second, 11 seconds ahead of Belmaggio. Poolesville rode their 1-2 duo to a 3A West team title in just their second season in the classification, an almost unprecedented jump from their ninth place finish a year ago.
Both the Westminster and Oakdale boys rode sub-one minute scoring spreads to second and third-place finishes, respectively. The two teams, along with fourth-place Linganore finished within five points of each other. Urbana, Thomas Johnson and South Hagerstown captured ther remaining state qualifying spots. The North Hagerstown duo of Nate Neely (sixth) and Brandon Gasaway (eighth) advanced individually, as well as Manchester Valley's Andrew Jackson - formerly of the late North Carroll High School.
Unlike the Poolesville boys, the girls were coming off a win at last year's 3A West Regionals. Only a sophomore, Nandini Satsangi ran like a seasoned veteran, putting nearly a minute between herself and the second-place finisher, Damascus' Heather Delaplaine. Satsangi will be looking forward to her rematch with the defending 3A state champion, Great Mills' Annie Imhof, next Saturday at Hereford.
Poolesville could not have defended their title without freshman Logan Rohde who finished third. In fact, a staggering four of the top eight finishers at this year's 3A West meet were freshmen. Two of them - Oakdale's Emily Baba and Sami Hardesty - led their team to a second-place finish.
Westminster, Damascus, Urbana and North Hagerstown rounded out the state qualifying teams. Thomas Johnson's Abigail Pinto, South Hagerstown's Emily Alexander and Erica Metz, and Tuscarora's Maddie Mandich advanced to the state meet as individuals.