A hot girls' 300 meter dash race at Prince George County's Sports & Learning Center in Landover for the Maryland State Indoor Championships with three girls breaking 40 seconds on a flat track in the 4A race with Wooton sophomore Olivia Ekpone (pictured left by Kevin Milsted of Mocorunning.com) as the winner at 39.20. Ekpone currently has the nation's fastest flat track time for 300 meters with 38.96 performance at the Montgomery County Championships on January 26th. In order to win the Maryland 4A 300 state title, Ekpone had to defeat one of the nation's fastest in Eleanor Roosevelt's Aurieyall Scott, who clocked a US #3 38.95 performance at Virginia Tech last month. Scott was second to Ekpone in the Maryland state meet at 39.64 and would later get redemption with a 7.07 clocking to win the 55 meter dash state title. 55 and 60 meter dash national leader Devon Smith of West Lake kicked off his state meet with an extremely close 35.42 victory in the 300 meter dash as it was a photo finish between Smith and Frederick's Brady Wilson also timed at 35.42 to take the margin of victory for Smith down to the thousandths of a second to determine Smith as the 3A state champion. Eleanor Roosevelt's Denison Long clocked a slightly faster time to win the 4A state title with a 35.24 performance. In the 55 meter dash finals, Devon Smith would break his own state meet record (6.39) from a year ago with a 6.37 clocking. Foot Locker Nationals champion Solomon Haile was seriously challenged by Walt Whitman junior and NXN individual qualifier Andrew Palmer for the 4A 1600 state title. Palmer made a move with 300 to go, but Haile countered to pull away for a 4:18.74 victory and Palmer in second at 4:20. Haile came back in the 3200 meter run to win convincingly against Palmer in their second races of the day in a meet record time of 9:19.74. Solid winning times in the 4x800 meter relay races as the Broadneck boys came close to a sub 8 performance with their 8:02.05 victory followed by Winston Churchill in second at 8:06.64. A dominant run from Amirah Johnson of Eleanor Roosevelt in the 4A girls' 1600 meter race as the sophomore took the title by a 7 second margin of victory in 5:06.42 with most of the distance created between her and second in the final 400 meters of the race. Johnson scored a second state title on the day in the 800 meter run with a 2:18.66 victory. Catonsville sophomore Xauddina Whittington had a stellar double in the sprints in the 3A girls' division as she followed up her 39.94 victory in the 300 earlier in the day with a meet record performance in the 500 meter dash in 1:15.24. She was pressed in the 500 by Western's Danielle Douglas (1:15.86), who also ran under the old 3A meet record. The fastest time of the day in the 500 belong to 4A winner and Eleanor Roosevelt junior Afia Charles as the US leader dipped just under 1:15 on a flat track in 1:14.99. Charles later ran on the Eleanor Roosevelt 4x200 meter relay, which dominated the 4A race with the nation's fastest flat track time under 1:42 at 1:41.31. CH Flowers girls posted a solid time for second place at 1:43.48. A great time was posted by Quince Orchard's Wayne Bartholomew in the 4A 800 meter finals as Palmer took the lead from Gaithersburg's Antonio Palmer in the final lap for a US #7 1:55.97 victory. Bartholomew completed a difficult double with two challenging middle distance events by also claiming the 4A 400 state title in a personal best and US #6 1:04.92. Atholton High saw a 1-2 finish from their distance runners in the 3A boys 1600 and 3200 meter races with Graham Bazell (4:23.28) edging out teammate Christopher Wunsch (4:24.08) in the 1600, while Atholton senior Michael Lynch took the 3200 state title as well as the meet record in 9:25.53 with former state record holder Bazell in second at 9:39.61. Emily Vannoy of Thomas Johnson destroyed her own state record by over 2 feet with a US #2 mark of 47'10.25" in the shot put to win the 4A state title by over 9 feet. Maryland State Indoor Championships (4A/3A) Results
Coverage
The 1A and 2A classifications of the Maryland State Indoor Championships were held on Monday with the largest classifications to come on Tuesday at the Prince George County's Sports & Learning Center in Landover. North Point boys and Middletown girls won the 2A team titles, while Western STES boys and Williamsport girls claimed the 1A state indoor titles. Top performances in 2A: Walkersville senior Jon Hill continues to soar high as one of the country's top high jumpers this indoor season and will move ahead to championship season with a Maryland state title and new 2A state meet record with his 6'10.50" clearance. Craig Morgan of River Hill dominated the boys 1600 field with a 2A meet record time of 4:21.96 and later came back to win his second title in the 3200 in 9:44.05. Two relay meet records went down as the North Point boys built momentum to their state team championship off their 1:31.81 clocking in the 4x200, while Winters Mill took down a three year old record in the 4x800 by knocking 16 seconds off their seed time in a 8:13.55 win. A thriller in the girls' 800 with two athletes dipping under the old state meet record with Middletown senior Brittney Caudle taking first in 2:16.85, while Queen Anne's sophomore Charlotte Staver not far behind as runner-up at 2:17.03. Caudle was doubling back from another tight race in the 1600 meter run against Century sophomore Mara Linde (2nd, 5:11.05), but Caudle came out ontop in the end in a meet record performance of 5:10.19. A deep girls' high jump competition with three juniors rounding out the top 3 and all over 5'4". Paxtutent junior Amina Smith became only the 8th girl in the country to clear 5'8" in the high jump this year as the height gave her the state title and meet record over North Point's Shavon Briscoe (2nd, 5'6". Top performances in 1A: Clear Spring junior Paige Shirk came in with a season best mark of just over 38 feet, but walked out as a state champion with a big personal best mark of 41'4.50" to shatter a 25 year old 1A meet record held by a former thrower from Clear Spring High. Sasha Smallwood of Pikesville set a new meet record in the pole vault as the sophomore cleared 11'1". Williamsport's Michael Lilley just missed the 1A state meet record in the 3200 by 3 tenths of a second with his 9:49.81 victory. Teammate Naseem Haje was runner-up to Lilly as both ran on the victorious 4x800 meter relay earlier in the day. Maryland State Indoor Championships Results: 2A Results - 1A Results
