Article Written by Isaiah Shiau
The infamous Baltimore Armory hosted the 3A East Regional Indoor Track and Field Championship on February 7th, 2023. This facility, known for its lack of an authentic track surface, converts most times to approximately -1.2 seconds per lap on a real track. Both Northern high school's boys and girls teams won the team titles after displaying a versatile team from the distance, sprint, and field events.
Boys:
Starting off in the sprints, KaVon Turner (6.62) of Great Mills won the 55-meter dash with Northern's Miles Halbert (6.82) right behind in second. However, in the 55-meter hurdles, Ragiariki Lewis scored 10 points for Northern after winning the event in a time of 7.91 seconds. His teammate Tyler Brown (8.35) scored an additional 4 points for their team after placing 5th.
Jordan Tuck (37.59) from Northern scored 8 points in the 300m after finishing 2nd, right behind Darian Tarver Jr. from Atholton high school who ran a winning time of 37.16. Tarver also managed to beat Tuck to the line in the 500m, winning in a time of 1:09.52, while Tuck placed second in 1:10.61.
Northern continued to display a dominant sprint team in the 4x200 and 4x400 relays. Their 4x200 team of Jordan Tuck, Ragiariki Lewis, Tyler Brown, and Miles Halbert automatically qualified after running a winning time of 1:38.08. Nearing the end of the meet Northern left an impression on the spectators in the 4x400 relay. Their team, consisting of Jordan Tuck, Joshua Wilson, Tyler Brown, and Miles Halbert ran a first-place time of 1:38.08 and beat Mount Hebron by 0.14 seconds.
Chopticon dominated the 800m with three of their runners scoring an impressive total of 23 points. Mason Hoover ran a winning time of 2:07.02 with his teammates Dominic Longobardi (2:07.41) and Weston Carr (2:07.77) finishing second and fourth. Long Reach senior Chrisitan Brower broke up the pack in third, running 2:07.65.
In the distance events, the much anticipated 1600 had an unexpected turn of events. Centennial's Antonio Camacho-Bucks who previously won the Howard County title in the 1600 held back for the majority of the race. Camacho-Bucks explained later he was conserving energy for the prestigious Millrose Games invitational later on February 11th. This gave way to a race between Long Reach's Christian Brower, Kidus Zeleke of Reservoir, and Wildelake's Henry Hopper in an attempt to snag the regional title. Ultimately, Brower won in a time of 4:38.31 while Camacho-Bucks (4:43.66) moved up to 2nd. His teammate, David Herzberger, finished 4th behind Hopper respectively, and all four will advance to the States on February 22nd.
In the 3200, Atholton's Ethan Mulcahy dominated the field with an aggressive racing strategy. He led from gun to line, winning in a time of 9:55.63. Although most of the field was right on his trail, coming through 2600 meters he gapped the pack by 5.04 seconds. Bryce Dufrene (10:01.25) of Chopticon placed 2nd while the former cross country state champion Henry Hopper of Wilde Lake placed third in 10:10.67.
Northern's Bradley Jenkins and Jason Snyder executed an incredible performance in shot-put, going 1-2 in the region and scoring 18 points total after the senior duo threw 46-09.00 (Jenkins) and 44-01.00 (Snyder). Scott Paterson from Centennial and Tomi Folorunso from Howard placed 3rd and 4th respectively, advancing to the state finals as well.
Girls:
On the girl's side, Northern battled it out with Mount Hebron's girls as both teams displayed strength in their respective event groups.
Mount Hebron's girls dominated the sprints, accumulating 60 points just from the 55m, 55 hurdles, 300m, and 500m. Arayana Ladson scored 10 points after winning the 55m in a time of 7.35 and placed second in the 55 hurdles in 9.01 for an additional 8 points. However, Northern had three girls make it to the finals and scored 11 points after Trinity Maurice (9.18), Destiny Ryan (9.68), and Kaitlyn Bradford (9.97) placed 4th, 5th, and 7th.
The lady Vikings had a loaded roster in the 300m after Sameena Mathew (41.62), Arayana Ladson (42.98), and Hannah Belk (44.27) went 1-2-3 in their region. Bianca Durant (44.98) of Howard qualified for the State finals in addition. In the 500m, Sameena Mathew took yet another win after running 1:21.71. Her teammate, Michelle Antwi, ran 1:24.58 to take 2nd. It should be noted that Northern placed two girls, Gayle Henderson (1:26.98) and Noelle Blackman (1:28.19) right behind in 3rd and 4th scoring 11 points.
In the girl's 800m, a surprising race led to four underclassmen qualifying for States. Sophomore Gentry Bowie finished 2nd in the 800m, scoring 8 points. Centennial's Riley Herdson who was initially in the back dropped a huge kick during the bell lap, splitting a 35.119 before catching Bowie at the line. Herdson won in a time of 2:28.57 and advanced to the State finals along with River Hill's Marella Virmani (2:30.77) and Isabella Boats (2:33.79) of Marriotts Ridge.
In the distance events, the underclassmen continued to exhibit dominance. Freshmen twins Lauren and Marella Virmani from River Hill went toe to toe with Northern's distance team. Lauren Virmani won the 1600m in 5:24.21 while her sister, Marella Virmani, ran 5:28.16 for 3rd place. Northern's Gentry Bowie (5:27.16) proved to be a contender again after finishing between the two in second place.
Lauren Virmani took another regional title in the 3200m running 11:47.74 with a massive gap on the field. Northern sophomore Ella Meccia (11:58.87) was right behind Virmani till the bell lap when Reservoir freshman Ela Muniz (11:55.95) took the opportunity to kick past Meccia into second place. Moxie Dyro from Northern finished right behind her teammate running 12:01.74.
In the field events, Northern scored 18 points in shotput after Annie Campbell and Gabby Cope went 1-2 with Cambell throwing 37-11.00 and Cope throwing 36-11.00. Right behind the two was Kya Barkley from Great Mills and Katherine Wood from Atholoton who automatically qualified for States as well. Howard's Ruth Smith won the high jump with a height of 5-01.00 and Olivia Struble (9-06.00) from Atholton high school won the pole vault scoring 10 points for her team. Sophomore Emerson Eatough who jumped 8-08.00 scored 8 points for Howard in second place.
The MPSSAA 3A State Championship for indoor track and field will be held at Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex on February 22nd and it is not an event you want to miss out on.