Montgomery County Public Schools Championships (Nov. 1, 2021)

The 2021 Montgomery County Public Schools Championships were held on Monday, Nov. 1. The meet was supposed to be held on October 29, but was postponed due to inclement weather. Fortunately, the championship meet was finally conducted, just three days before the 2021 MPSSAA Region Championships. 

2021 Montgomery County Public Schools Championships: Meet Preview I Results I Photos

(Andrew Schell becomes the Boys Varsity Race Champion)

Photo: Craig Amoss

The Boys Varsity Race winner was expected to be a toss-up between a few athletes, but with Walter Johnson's Andrew Schell coming up on top. This is exactly how the meet played out with Schell taking his sixth first-place performance for the season. Schell finished with an impressive time of 16:00.00. Just eight seconds behind was the second-place finisher, Montgomery Blair's Edward Lyness, with a time of 16:08.00. The third-place spot was taken by Richard Montgomery's Noah Fisher with a time of 16:15.00. Then, Northwood's Lamar Wilson followed in fourth with a time of 16:20.00. Close behind Wilson was Winston Churchill's Sebastien Breton in fifth with 16:23.00. 

Regarding the team title, the Winston Churchill boys walked away with the top honors. The team scored 67 points after placing two runners in the top 10: Sebastien Breton (5th, 16:23.00) and Julien Higgins (8th, 16:29.00). The Walt Whitman boys, led by Michael Ward (10th, 16:42.00), took second with 74 points. To add, their varsity squad boasted an impressive 23-second 1-5 spread. Walter Johnson, led by race champion Schell, finished third with 118 points. 

The Boys JV Race went a little differently. This time the Walt Whitman boys were on top. Walt Whitman's Philip Kwan became the individual champion after finishing with a time of 17:18.00, which granted him a lead of 26 seconds. The next athlete was Winston Churchill's Ethan Yen with 17:44.00. Richard Montgomery's Kai Ghebrehiwet rounded out the podium with 17:48.00. 

The Walt Whitman boys took the team title after placing four of their athletes in the top 10: Philip Kwan (1st, 17:18.00); Ryan Day (4th, 17:56.00); Michael Merola (6th, 18:09.00); and Jeremy Wei (7th, 18:12.00). They scored 37 points overall. The runner-up was the Winston Churchill team, led by Yen, just three points behind. They took second after scoring 40 points, while Richard Montgomery, led by Ghebrehiwet, took third with 71 points.

For the girls, Bethesda-Chevy Chase's Varri Higgins was favored to win, and she did just that. Higgins took first with a time of 18:11.00, which gave her a lead of 30 seconds. James Hubert Blake's Ella Zeigler followed in second with 18:44.00. Then, Richard Montgomery's Grace Finnegan finished third with 18:58.00. Sherwood's Avery Graham came rolling in behind Finnegan with 18:59.00. The last athlete to make the ranks was Montgomery Blair's Alexa Avila with 19:19.00.