Back to back to back is how Oakland Mills boys celebrated their victory this past week during the two-day event of the Howard County Outdoor Track championships. With their third win in a row in the past three years, the Scorpions remain undefeated. And just to add to the spectacle, their girls team dominated the competition winning the county title as well. Harvard distance commit Ethan Aidam said "The coaches and athletes know what the expectation is during championship season and we spend all year working towards eyeing big meets."
Boys
On the boys side, the Scorpions scored a heaping number of points in the sprint events, ranging from relays to hurdles. In the 100m finals, Trevin McHargh and his teammate Shane King went 1-2 running 10.82 and 10.87. Later the duo would almost sweep the podium in the 200m finals when King and McHargh went 1-2 again.
Meanwhile, the 100m hurdles took an unexpected turn as 2A indoor state champion Abdur Hassan of the Scorpions was unfortunately DQ'd following a false start. Howard's Christian Do, who finished second in the state for 3A indoor, took this opening and seized the county title after running 14.52.
In the distance events, another upset occurred as the highly anticipated distance duo, Antonio Camacho Bucks and Sebastian Martinez from Centennial, did not compete. Camacho Bucks later explained that he chose not to defend his 1600m title and rather focus on the Glen Loucks Games where he hoped to run a fast 2 mile. Meanwhile, Martinez made a last-minute decision to DNS in the 3200, giving way for Wilde Lake's Henry Hopper to take the win in 9:38.40.
In the 1600, Long Reach's Christian Brower narrowly beat out Ethan Aidam and Howard's Joey Ensor after running 4:24.11. The Carnegie Mellon commit also ran 1:59.40 to win the open 800m with Ensor (2:00.23) trailing right behind in second.
The Scorpions didn't stop racking up more points in the relays as they placed first in the 4x100, 4x200, and 4x400 and fifth in the 4x800 respectively.
Girls
The Scorpions continued their reign of victory with their girl's team who beat out River Hill with almost a 30-point lead.
Similar to the strategy of their boy's team, the Lady Scorpions took first in all three sprint relays. Oakland Mills also displayed a strong field team this year as Alicia Hall (37-04.00) took first in triple jump, MaKayla Pritchett (101-10) won the discus throw and Valerie Ashmu jumped a distance of 5-02.00. Although this distance tied her with Ruth Smith of Howard high school, Ashmu ultimately took the win on the tiebreaker.
In the distance events, the Scorpion's did not pose as much of a threat following the unfortunate injury of former 2022 cross-country county champion Frankie Moore. This didn't stop Moore from placing high enough to score a few points in the open 800m, the 1600m and the 3200m. At the same time, the twin sister phenoms Marella and Lauren Virmani dominated the field. The girls went 1-2 in both the 800m and 1600m with Marella in first followed by her sister in second for both races. Lauren also took first place in the 3200 on day 1 of counties while competing without her sister.
Some notable competitors in the girl's side were not too far off of the Virmani twins as Centennial sophomore Riley Herdson was right in the mix for the 1600m, managing to kick past Howard's Kiley Mann in the last lap before trying to close in on the River Hill distance duo. Later in the 800m, Wilde Lake's Ainslee Torres finished right behind Laruen Virmani, placing third respectively.
Back to back to back is how Oakland Mills boys celebrated their victory this past week during the two-day event of the Howard County Outdoor Track championships. With their third win in a row in the past three years, the Scorpions remain undefeated. And just to add to the spectacle, their girls team dominated the competition winning the county title as well. Harvard distance commit Ethan Aidam said "The coaches and athletes know what the expectation is during championship season and we spend all year working towards eyeing big meets."
Boys
On the boys side, the Scorpions scored a heaping number of points in the sprint events, ranging from relays to hurdles. In the 100m finals, Trevin McHargh and his teammate Shane King went 1-2 running 10.82 and 10.87. Later the duo would almost sweep the podium in the 200m finals when King and McHargh went 1-2 again.