In winning this race for the third consecutive time, Blair junior Halsey Sinclair showed that she is in fine form to defend her state title. Exiting the athletic fields for a long tour through the woods and around the perimeter of the adjoining Borher Park, Sinclair led a tight group of five--with twin sister Ashlyn just fifteen meters in arrears--all the way around the park. As they cleared the woods and headed back onto the sports fields the pack had dwindled to three: Sinclair, Northwest's new #1 Emma Eckerstrom, a sophomore, and Louise Hannallah of Churchill. Last year's state third-placer Veronica Salcido, a Wootton soph, had fallen ten meters off the pace and Quince Orchard's Cara Harrison was further back still. Over the final 800m Sinclair pressed the pace and earned a three-second win over Eckerstrom, 18:59 to 19:02 with a fast-closing Salcido capturing 3rd in the same time. Hannallah came 4th in 19:04 and Harrison was 5th, five seconds further back. (Photo: top five at around two miles. LR Salcido, Eckerstrom, Harrison (obscured), Sinclair, Hannallah. Ashley Sinclair is out of frame to left.)
|
In the team competition Northwest was easily the strongest team. When fifth runner finished (in 17th place), only four other teams had as many as two runners in. Northwest's 48 point total was less than half tthe points totaled by a pair of fine teams, Quince Orchard (100) and Winston Churchill (104), with sophomore-led Walt Whitman capturing 4th. Northwest showed that they will be very strong at states as they move up from 3A to 4A. At Hereford High's tough States course Northwest will have a chance to play spoiler as they face defending champs Eleanor Roosevelt of Greenbelt. Earlier in the season Northwest was ranked 9th in the Southeastern US by the Nike Team Nationals committee but Roosevelt is #2 in the most recent ranking and stand to earn an expenses-paid trip to Portland for NTN. If they can withstand Northwest's expected challenge, that is.
In the boys' race, senior Janes may have lost two top mates to graduation last year but he showed he can carry the torch for the Gaithersburg program just fine by himself. He established himself early and led a tight cluster of eight top runners through the first half of the race. Entering the final small loop before heading back through the woods it was Sherwood's Chris Barnard and Janes at the front, but just behind lurked 4:20 miler Tarik Aougab of Churchill and Tommy Mullings of Sherwood, with Walter Johnson soph Christopher Moen and Whitman junior Will Palmer--back from an injury that derailed his track season last spring--just a step behind them.
Entering the final 800 meters it was just Barnard setting the pace with Janes off his shoulder. But rounding the tennis courts with less than 300 meters to go, Janes slipped and touched down onto the wet grass, losing ten meters. Emerging from the final bend, though, it was Ryan Janes in the lead and he sprinted to victory 16:15 to 16:16 over Barnard to improve on his 3rd-place finish of last year. Moen captured 3rd place with 4th and 5th going to a pair of Bethesda-Chevy Chase runners that had fallen off the back of the pack. Palmer was 6th with Magruder's Alec Triantos two seconds back. Aougab and Mullings slipped to 8th and 9th but all clocked 16:43 or better. (Photo: top six nearing two miles: LR Barnard, Aougab, Janes, Mullings, Palmer, Moen. BCC pair lag by 8-10 meters.)
|
The Sherwood boys captured the county title with 88 points, their two top-ten finishes bolstered by another pair of finishers in 15th and 19th places, and with their #5 in 43rd position. Finishing comfortably in second place was Walt Whitman High School with 113 points, a very solid performance to frustrate a Quince Orchard squad that had beaten them several times over the course of the season, 3rd today with 124 points.
|