Photo by Joe Swift
It's been a while since we've seen Riverdale Baptist senior Stephanie Davis on the track but on Friday she reminded everyone that she is still one of the premiere sprinters in the state. She bettered her outdoor personal best in the 400 by over a second on Friday to take the title in the Emerging Elite section of the event at New Balance Indoor Nationals. Overall it proved to be a deep event for Maryland with both Masai Russell (second, 55.85) and Cameron Hinton (seventh, 56.22) cracking the top ten.
Although Russell came up just short in her title attempt her teammate Cierra Pyles would make sure to give Bullis a victory on day one in the Emerging Elite girls long jump. Already comfortably atop the Maryland triple jump rankings for the winter Pyles came up just shy of the MD #1 mark in the long jump but still easily captured the title with a personal best jump of 18'10.50.
Over on the guys' side, High Point's Ken Nelson finished third in the Emerging Elite 400 with an indoor personal best time of 49.73 - good for MD #4. The #1 ranker in the event is DeMatha sophomore Nicholas Wilson who pulled out a victory (and MD #2) time in the 200 after multiple runners were disqualified in the fast heat.
Photo by Joe Swift
Two Maryland boys made it to the finals of the Emerging Elite 60 meter hurdles and ultimately it was 4A state champion Tyrone Bryan who not only took home the title in the finals but also set a new meet record at 7.88 seconds. Riverdale Baptist's Daniel Whitfield took sixth in the finals.
It was an especially good day for long jumpers, starting with the aforementioned Cierra Pyles and carrying over to the boys long jump. Gilman's Ayende Watson grabbed second place in the Emerging Elite competition with a new personal best of 23'4.75, which will shoot him up to number three on the Maryland leaderboard.
There were plenty of other big names in action on Friday - find all of the day one results here! Don't forget that we still have two more days of exciting New Balance Indoor Nationals coverage to come, plus more from the USATF and AAU indoor national meets as well!