Since the return from the pandemic, Oakland Mills and Howard have taken turns beating out the other for the boys indoor track and field championship. This year was the Scorpions’ turn.
At Thursday’s Ivan Walker Howard County Indoor Track and Field Championships, held at Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex, Oakland Mills claimed both the boys and girls titles, in each case beating out Howard for the award.
The Scorpions boys totaled 143 points, eclipsing Howard’s 92. Long Reach (63.5), Reservoir (53) and Hammond (46) rounded out the top five. Oakland Mills’ girls won with 103 pointed, edging out Howard’s 97.5. River Hill (76), Centennial (57) and Atholton (56) followed.
Gabriel Murray led the charge for the Oakland Mills boys, winning the 55-meter hurdles (7.5 seconds) and the 300 (34.68) and ran on the winning 4×200 and 4×400 relays. Keshon Tate, Isaac Ramsey and Ayomide Adeniyi ran with Murray for the 4×200 win. Anthony Thompson Jr. and Solomon Small joined Ramsey and Murray on the 4×400 team. Small, Thompson, Shamar Johnson and Tomoki Weddington made it a relay sweep, winning the 4×800.
Tate claimed a pair of field firsts, winning the long jump (21 feet, 10.5 inches) and triple jump (44-9). Small added a win for Oakland Mills in the 500 (1:06.92).
Other boys first-place winners were Reservoir’s Femi Fekoya in the 55 (6.54), Centennial’s Tate Hancock in the 800 (2:06.9), Mt. Hebron’s Michael Heinemann in the 1,600 (4:30.53), Howard’s Rayyan Dheini in the 3,200 (9:53.47), Centennial’s Brody Buck in the shot put (49-9 1/2), Hammond’s Philip Kaiser in the high jump (6-2) and Howard’s Gavin Reardon in the pole vault (10-6).
Oakland Mills’ girls were led by Alicia Hall who won the triple jump (38-10) and finished second in the long jump (18-2 1/4) and high jump (5-2). Also, Janelle Codrington won the 55 hurdles (8.42) and the team of Jordyn Harriston, Payton Buchanan, Kayla Robinson and Codi Malott won the 4×400 (8.42).
River Hill twin sisters Lauren and Marella Virmani traded off wins and runner-up finishes. Marella beat out Lauren for first in the 800 (2:19.39) while Lauren beat out her sister in the 1,600 (5:25.49) by one-hundredth of a second. Lauren also took first in the 3,200 (11:54.62) ahead of teammate Alyssa Mattes.
Both Virmanis, Mattes and Nikita Mohan won the 4×800 in 9:36.69.
Other individual winners were Howard’s Sydney Rhodes in the 55 (7.14), Long Reach’s Kendall Hall in the 300 (40.44), Atholton’s Favor Udeochu in the 500 (1:17.83), Glenelg’s Manuela Dabiri in the shot put (34-4 3/4), Howard’s Ava Carr in the high jump (5-2), Reservoir’s Hannah McDerment in the pole vault (10-0) and Howard’s Nyia Bedell in the long jump (19-1/4).
Howard’s Kiyara Wiggins, Rhodes, Kaitlyn Alford and Bianca Durant won the 4×200 (1:46.41).
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