Shining in the sun
Stone track and field picks up wins
Track and field athletes have competed in the snow and rain so far during the 2016 spring campaign, but Tuesday’s Southern Maryland Athletic Conference quad meet at Chopticon High School was a refreshing turnaround.
The Braves hosted their senior day against Huntingtown, Northern and Thomas Stone with temperatures in the 70s and the sun shining.
The Huntingtown boys had no issues against their opponents, defeating all three handily to move to 9-0 SMAC/overall. The Hurricanes beat Northern 95.66-41.33, Stone 9443 and Chopticon 115-22. Northern (5-2-1) picked up two wins, 72-65 over the Cougars and 96-40 over the Braves. Stone (5-2) got a victory in a 78-54 victory over Chopticon (2-6).
Huntingtown senior Makiyah Gorman won the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.87 seconds. Gorman said he knew his teammate Drew Boone was right there with him in the 110 event.
“I was just trying to beat him out at least,” Gorman said. “This is the first race for me today. For the 300, I want to stay under 42 [seconds].”
Gorman went on to accomplish that goal with a time of 40.74 in the 300 hurdles. Huntingtown’s boys also won the 400 (44.24) and 800 (1 minute 32.48 seconds) relays.
Huntingtown picked up three wins in field events. Adam Kinder won the triple jump with a leap of 41 feet 4 1/2 inches. Robert Meador took the shot put (50-10) and Christopher Alexy finished first in the discus (135-3).
Northern’s Matt Bennett captured win in the 800 (2:02.64, eight-tenths of a second ahead of Huntingtown’s Michael Pettiford) and 1,600 (4:26.52) runs, while teammate Charlie Sweeney took home the win in the 3,200 (9:59.96). Sweeney, Jacob Deresky, Michael Metler and Dylan Weamert teamed up to win the 3,200 relay (8:32.00).
Bennett said he has big goals set for the postseason.
“It’s kind of a thin track. It felt a little weird,” Bennett said. “We tried to do a fast mile today. I did all right. I guess I kind of slowed down a little in the second half. I’ve got one more invite [to run] and SMAC, regionals and states to think about. Honestly I’d like to win two more state championships in the mile and two-mile.”
Bennett said he has his radar on South Hagerstown two-mile competitor Darren Harmon.
“We were neck and neck at the indoor [state meet].” Bennett said. Harmon came away with the win that day.
Stone’s Justin Greene won two events, the 200 and 400 dashes. Greene finished the 200 in 22.33 and took the 400 in 50.87, defeating Gorman by over a second in the 400. The Cougars’ 1,600 relay quartet of Billy Burch, Alec Delcambre, Kyle Robinson-Jordan and Michael McGraw finished first in 3:43.14.
Huntingtown’s Dajon Wiseman ran a 10.59 in the 100 dash, edging Chopticon’s Brandon Blackwell by 19 one-hundredths of a second. Blackwell did pick up a win in the long jump (20-3 1/2). Northern’s Mike Williams took the high jump (6-0).
On the girls side, Northern picked up the sweep to go to 7-1 on the season. The Patriots got past Huntingtown 69-68, and beat Stone 126-10 and Chopticon 97-39. Huntingtown (63) notched two wins, 112-15 over the Cougars and 98-34 over the Braves. Chopticon (2-6) was a winner, defeating Stone (3-4) 72-34.
Huntingtown junior Harleigh White wasn’t totally happy with her jumps at the meet despite being a quadruple winner on the day. She won the 100 (12.26, three-tenths of a second over teammate Jordyn Taylor), 200 (25.48), 400 (59.78, six-tenths of a second over Stone’s Mone’t Peterson) and the long jump (16-4 1/2).
“I’m feeling tired today, but I’m satisfied with my performance,” White said. “I didn’t even know I was going to run the 400 until today. ... I have Penn Relays next weekend and I’m triple jumping there and this weekend I have an invitational at Riverdale Baptist that I’m also triple jumping at. Well, in SMAC I’m looking for Lillian Reese, she’s my long jump competition and with triple jump there’s a freshman from Northwest and Clarksburg, they’re my biggest competition in Maryland.”
Northern had a clean sweep in the distance events. Sarah Deresky won the 800 (2:26.35), while Adrianna Wilder took the 1,600 (5:27.06) and 3,200 (12:03.19) with teammate Molly Barrick finishing second in both events.
“It’s a smaller meet and I’m in a lot of events today so my goal was to take it like a nice, hard workout,” Wilder said. “Just push myself for every event. My teammate Molly pushed me. She pushes me every day in training.”
Huntingtown’s Erianna Gudger was a winner in the 100 hurdles (15.66), while Chopticon’s Shelby Johnson (48.42) defeated Gudg- er by seven-tenths of a second to take the 300 hurdles.
“I felt like I could have ran faster,” Johnson said of the 100 event. “My blocks, I’m working on them. I feel like I need to get better at them. Sometimes my foot will get a little stuck with my spikes but aside from that, I just felt slow.”
Northern won three relays, edging Huntingtown in two of them, and Chopticon won the 400 relay over the Hurricanes.
Huntingtown’s Kaitlyn Hinds took the high jump (5-0) and teammate Samantha Bolin claimed the discus (93-11). Northern’s Jasmine Holland was a winner in the triple jump (32-0 1/2) and Chopticon’s Sade Herbert claimed the shot put (35-0).