Girls 55 Meter Dash
Photo by Adrian Hood, Sr.
It's not often that the top two runners in an event go head to head against each other, but that's exactly what will go down on Saturday in the 55 meter dash. Flowers' Pharist O'Neal, who holds a MD #1 ranking in the event which she ran in a win at the Ed Bowie Invitational, is the top seed in the race. Her 7.08 personal best was easily a meet record at the Ed Bowie Invitational and .12 seconds faster than any other girl has run on a Maryland track this season.
Sitting directly behind O'Neal on the state leaderboard is Bullis' Ashley Seymour. Seymour is just one of the many newcomers to a Bullis girls squad that has reached historic levels in the state, both in terms of top-of-the-line talent and depth. Seymour clocked her MD #2 (and personal best) time at the Bishop Loughlin Games back in early December.
One of the dark horses in Saturday's race could be St. Mary's Ryken's Kelisa Cain. As a sophomore last winter she clocked the same time in the 55 as O'Neal (7.23) and a nearly identical time in the 100 (11.96 to O'Neal's 11.93). Cain will be making her 2016-17 indoor debut with a chance to really shake up the Maryland leaderboards.