Article Written by Isaiah Shiau

Over 2000 athletes, coaches, and spectators packed the indoor track stadium at Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex on February 22nd, 2023 for a double feature of the 3A and 4A State Championship. In the 3A division, Northern Calvert high school brought home two state trophies as both their boys and girls teams won the overall team titles. 

3A Girls

Starting off in the sprinting events, Mt. Hebron's girls demonstrated consistency in their sprint program. Former county champion Arayana Ladson won the 55m in 7.14 seconds, holding off Howard high school's Sydney Rhodes in both the prelims and finals. Ladson also placed 3rd in the 55m hurdles and third in the 300m, behind her teammate Sameena Mathew. In the 500m, Genelle Stephens from Oxon Hill ran a winning time of 1:16.34, ranking her at #1 in Maryland for the 500m (Public Schools). Stephens later ran the 800m, narrowly beating freshman Hailey Lane from Tuscorara for 3rd place by 0.01 seconds. To cap things off, the lady Vikings took one more win home after they won the 4x200 with a 2-second lead on the next three teams.

Ultimately, Westminster senior Hannah Toth won the 800m running 2:19.03. Toth also won the 1600m with an impressive gap on the rest of the field by about 7 seconds. What started off as a congested race led by River Hill freshman Lauren Virmani resulted in Toth gradually pulling away to victory.

Lauren Virmani sought redemption in the 3200m as she went toe-to-toe with the distance duo from Northern: Moxie Dyro and Ella Meccia. Virmani took the lead again but this time it played in her favor as she won in a time of 11:29.29. Dyro (11:31.32) and Meccia (11:31.85) finished 3rd and 4th behind Lauren Stine from North Hagerstown (11:30.45).

Northern's throwers Annie Campbell and Gabby Cope who went 1-2 at the 3A East Regional championship repeated their success in the State finals as Cambell threw 38-03.00 for the win while Cope threw 36-09.00 in second. This performance racked up a grand total of 18 points for the Patriots.

3A Boys

Northern's Jordan Tuck seemed to have a crucial role in the success of the Patriot's boys team as he scored a heaping amount of points from the 300m, 500m, 4x200 relay, and 4x400 relay. His teammate Ragiariki Lewis (7.80) also placed 4th in the 55m hurdles scoring five points. 

Revisiting some of these sprinting events with more detail, the individual 300m was a battle between Alpha Balde of Digital Harbor and Darian Traver Jr. from Atholton. Ultimately, Traver was edged out by Balde by only 0.03 seconds. In the 500m Manchester Valley's middle-distance star Carter Knox aggressively took the inside lane for the first 400m but was passed on the outside by Jack Hynes of Bel Air who won in a time of 1:06.61. Darian Traver Jr. (1:07.63) also was a contender and finished third behind Knox respectively. 

Sophomore Colin Abrams from Colonel Zadok Magruder took on a predominate upperclassmen field in the 800m and won in a time of 1:56.73. His impressive time was a few hundredths seconds away from breaking the meet record of 1:56.14, set by Jordan Leon of Milford Mill in 2015.

In the distance events, two former cross-country state champions dominated their events. Antonio Camacho-Bucks of Centennial high school clocked a 4:19.82 for the win while also having a good lead. Although it was a condensed pack for the first 1200 meters, at 400 to go Camacho-Bucks released a devastating kick, splitting approximately 57 seconds to gap the field. In yet another tactical sit-and-kick race, Wilde Lake's Henry Hopper ran a 9:37.87 in the 3200 for his second state title. When interviewed after the meet, Hopper expressed that it was truly "satisfying especially [given] the uncertainty around maintaining state champ status".

Finishing in the field events, Northern put an emphasis on their incredible throwing team as Bradley Jenkins and Jason Snyder threw 48-03.00 and 46-02.50 to go 2-3 in the state.