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Hoco Moco Recap
By: Matt Davis and Kevin Milsted
Sunday, December 07, 2008
webmaster@mocorunning.com

One of the greatest things about indoor track is when all of the fans in the crowd collectively put their distractions aside, turn their attention to the track and begin cheering and whooping for a close race to the finish. The whoops can erupt for just about any race for runners of any ability level. Early in the season, we usually never know when the excitement will erupt, but when Olivia Ekpone is on the track, fans are always in for a treat. When she is running for her relay teammates, she chases down opponents in a way that draws out a different kind of whoop from the crowd. It's a whoop that says, "She's just ridiculous."

Early in the meet, Ekpone led her team to victory in the 55-meter dash shuttle relay with a hand-timed split of under 7 seconds. The race was over as soon as she left the line. Later in the meet, she was the second leg on the 4x200-meter relay. She blew the race open, leaving her opponents behind as the crowd showed its appreciation for her dominance. Later in the open 300-meter dash, she cruised to a relaxed victory in a slower heat.

There was one team, and one girl in particular, that was up to the challenge that Ekpone and the Wootton girls posed. Although they never met head to head, Arielle Statham and the Paint Branch girls showed that they are back in full force this season, and are not about to take a back seat to Woootton. Statham won the 300-meter dash with a time of 42.35, half a second faster than Ekpone ran in an earlier heat. Statham also combined with Vanessa Jules, Jasmine Jones, and Korine Duval for the fastest 4x200-meter relay. Their time of 1:49.49 was a full second faster than Wootton ran in a different heat, and very impressive for the first meet of the season. On top of all of that, Statham set her PR in the triple jump with a jump of 37-05 and Jules won the high jump in 5-2.

While the Paint Branch and Wootton girls looked the most impressive in the sprints and field, the Einstein girls grabbed a surprising win in the 1600-meter sprint medley relay. As it often does, the race comes down to who has the best 400/800 legs and the Solomon twins were the best on this day.

Northwest commanded the 4x1600 relay from the start with a very relaxed 5:30 split from Britt Eckerstrom to lead it off. But the race became exciting as Walter Johnson worked its way back into the race. Although they had the slowest splits on their relay teams, it was WJ's Jennifer Spencer who made up a lot of ground on Northwest's Kai Santangelo. WJ's Jenna Willett continued to work her way up on the final leg, but NW's Alyssa Henshaw remained relaxed and held off Willett for the win 23:05 to 23:10.

While the Gaithersburg boys held out from several events, they were quite impressive in the early shuttle hurdle/sprint relay. They split up what was potentially their top squad to take 1st and 3rd overall. Owen Cain, Al Kallay, and Chris Bailey showed superior hurdle form to almost all other hurdlers while sprinters Axel Ofori and Antonio Palmer contributed to the cause. When one considers how well Cain and Sean Stanley are expected to do in the field events and Palmer is supposed to do in the middle distance events, Gaithersburg is looking quite impressive early on.

The defending outdoor county champions from Clarksburg are looking very strong once again. They return two of the top shot putters in the county in Avery Graham and Rob Thompson who took 1st and 3rd overall in this meet. Mark Small, who has been unable to participate in indoor track in previous seasons, is out and ready to compete, although he only took sixth overall in the 300-meter dash. He appeared to shut it down in the last 50 meters of the race, later explaining that this meet didn't mean anything.

A team that looks like they may be a surprise is Whitman. Competing without their star distance runners, Whitman still managed a strong showing. They placed 2nd in the shuttle/dash relay with the help of top hurdle Jonathan Hale. They were even more impressive in the 4x200 with a winning time of 1:37.86 without their star sprinter Anthony Young-Wiseman. Northwood transfer Jayson Carson gave them a boost in the sprints and in the high jump (he was 2nd in 5-10). Later in the season, distance runners Andrew Palmer and Brandt Silver-Korn are expected to give them even more of a boost.

In the distance events, Walter Johnson, coming off of their cross country state title, was hoping to run a great 4x1600 relay. Their plans were dampened right off the bat when Atholton senior Graham Bazell ran a 4:25 split by running 2:14 for the first 800 meters and 2:11 for the second 800 meters. WJ's Sean O'Leary managed a split of 4:38, but Atholton only continued to pull away, ultimately winning in an impressive 18:25. WJ was second in 19:09.

The Damascus boys did what they set out to do winning the DMR in 11:09 and the 4x8 in 8:21.

Northwest's Chris Onuigbo was also back in action helping Northwest win the sprint medley relay in 3:51.2. Onuigbo is joined this year by Good Counsel transfer Hassan Dixon, who was the top Montgomery County finisher in the 300 with a time of 37.00 and placed fourth in the long jump in 19-06 (top Montgomery County jump).






NameComments

Sbtrack
Sunday, December 07, 2008
10:26:47 PM
Just to add a few things to the article that we wrote, watch out for travis hawkings, 5th at counties lat year in the 100m dash, runs a 4.42 tessa morrison in the 500, pretty sure she was sub 60 in the 400 reggie steel in the 300 will be a big surprise to a lot of people and mitchell pollard in 55.

Anonymous
Sunday, December 07, 2008
10:31:27 PM
suree

Anonymous
Sunday, December 07, 2008
10:49:28 PM
nice write up, just Korine Duval has one L in her last name

Anonymous
Sunday, December 07, 2008
10:56:42 PM
Richard Montgomery Looked good in the triple jump too. They had two athletes near or at 40 feet.

Anonymous
Monday, December 08, 2008
11:00:50 AM
Adam Davis won the triple jump!

should be on track
Monday, December 08, 2008
06:48:01 PM
rm looks good all da time SON

Hugh Jazz
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
08:04:14 AM
suree

Anonymous
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
10:33:03 AM
ppl aint ready 4 gaithersburg

Anonymous
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
07:29:21 AM
yea y'all dnt kno bout gaythursburg

Anonymous
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
10:15:29 AM
hahaha good one..i expect your prolly form some sorry ass team so its cool i understand..

Anonymous
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
08:10:08 PM
G-Burg sucks doggity, where its at is rm, we legit, and we can throw da hands

Anonymous
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
10:50:44 PM
damn..RM ?..lemme jus stop now lol

Anonymous
Thursday, December 11, 2008
08:45:59 AM
was keith hudson there

Anonymous
Friday, December 12, 2008
05:36:13 PM
PB Girls Track Team is the truth this year !!

Gburg Alumnus
Sunday, December 14, 2008
11:32:12 PM
Hey RM runner, I must say RM's success around 2006-2007 is definitely over. This is clearly Gaithersburg's year. The Trojans are simply too strong for RM to have a chance to even compete.

Anonymous
Monday, December 15, 2008
10:24:52 AM
yeaa RM reign is over..soo dnt make your team look any worse than it already is

Anonymous
Monday, December 15, 2008
10:25:42 AM
and ya CANNOT throw da hands..

Anonymous
Monday, December 15, 2008
10:43:24 PM
RM didn't even have a reign. Their two county titles were mere anomalies.

Anonymous
Monday, December 15, 2008
11:39:59 PM
lol u gotta point..

Anonymous
Friday, December 19, 2008
08:57:24 PM
just watch out for bowie dats all i got to say baby cause they comin and they comin hard dats all am going to say dont be suprised when they fry ok

Anonymous
Saturday, December 20, 2008
08:20:07 PM
haha who is bowie !?


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