Korede Otusajo put on a show at the MPSSAA Indoor 3A State Championships!
Photo Credits: Seth Denning/MileSplit
The action kicked off quickly in the boys 4x800m as we saw a three-way battle between Northern-Calvert, Chopticon, and Huntingtown. Chopticon ended up pulling away very slightly for the win in a time of 8:36.72, continuing their dominance in the 3A 4x800m. The 300m was up next as we saw sprinting star, Talil Atkins from Baltimore Polytechnic, take home the win in a time of 37.10. Another athlete who has been putting up national times, Aiden Neal from Manchester Valley swept the 1600m with a remarkable 4:21.61 to solidify the win by over 9 seconds. The 500m was one of the most anticipated races of the day as we saw Atkins and Korede Otusajo of Milford Mill throw down some blazing times with Otusajo continuing his hot streak in the middle distance events and taking home the win. Vaughn Devaughn III of Mergenthaler took home both the high jump and the 55mh prelims and finals, solidifying another great showing for the Mervo athlete at the state meet continuing from last season. Cole Schlotterbeck of South Hagerstown came up from the win short twice in the 55m prelims and the 300m but got his revenge in the 55m finals upsetting Jalen Booth-Mitchell of Reservoir. The 3200m saw John Sears of Linganore throw in a late surge to pull away from Kidus Zeleke of Reservoir and Quinlan Ballou of River Hill (only a freshman!). All three went under 10:00. The 4x200m relay saw a battle commence between Baltimore Polytechnic and Mergenthaler with Baltimore Polytechnic led by Atkins barely pulling away by .07 seconds to take home the state title. Otusajo and Neal, who had both taken home a state title of themselves, went head-to-head in the 800m as a battle of speed vs. strength unleashed with Otusajo barely fending off the charging Neal in the last 50m to secure his 2nd state title. The Baltimore Polytechnic boys attempted to go for their 2nd relay win of the night in the last event of the state meet but were just barely edged out by South Hagerstown anchored by Schlotterback to close out the running events. The shotput was dominated by Huntingtown as they had two athletes go 1-2 in the event Adam Szatanek and Aiden Walker, while the pole vault was taken by Samuel Starrs of Oakdale, an athlete who has been consistently dominant in the pole vault scene for years. Huntingtown ended up as your 3A State Championships with a point total of 48.5 points, followed by Baltimore Polytechnic in 2nd.