Loyola's Matt Jablonski, The Sun's Performer of the Year in cross country and indoor track, finished second in the 3,200 at the Arcadia Invitational in Southern California on Saturday night.
Amaar Moussa of Arcadia High won the event in 8 minutes, 49.59 seconds while Jablonski finished in 8:50.80 in a race filled with good distance runners from around the country.
-- Jeff Seidel
If bad weather forces postponement of Tuesday's indoor track state title meet for Class 3A and 4A, the MPSSAA will try to make it up on Wednesday, according to MPSSAA executive director Ned Sparks.
The Class 1A and 2A meets were held Monday at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex, but the impending storm could wipe out Tuesday's scheduled meet for the other two classes. Sparks said that they'd shoot for running the meet Wednesday.
If that doesn't happen, Sparks said that Thursday is the next option.
-- Jeff Seidel
Following is the All-MIAA track and field teams as chosen by the coaches.
100 meters
Kyle Baker - Archbishop Spalding
200 meters
Darius Jennings - Gilman
400 meters
George Chambers - Archbishop Curley
800 meters
Matt Jablonski - Loyola
1,600 meters
Matt Jablonski - Loyola
3,200 meters
Matt Jablonski - Loyola
110 high hurdles
Justin Gross - McDonogh
300 hurdles
Justin Gross - McDonogh
Long Jump
Justin Gross - McDonogh
Triple Jump
Justin Gross - McDonogh
High Jump
Albert Clarke - Mount St. Joseph
Pole Vault
Sam Polino - McDonogh
Shot put
Isaac Jorgensen - McDonogh
Discus
Eric Price - Archbishop Curley
4x100 Relay
Mount St. Joseph
Kyle Fuller, Ian Miles, Brenden Jefferson, Randy Harris
4x200 Relay
Gilman
Taz Amin, Arthur Modell, Alex Deweese, Darius Jennings
4x400 Relay
Gilman
Arthur Modell, Chris Watson, Alex Deweese, Kevin Broh-Khan
4x800
Gilman
Peter Merritt, Kevin Broh-Kahn, Nick Wolf, Chris Watson
At-Large Selections
John Rybak - Archbishop Curley
Oumar Ballo – Archbishop Curley
Will Meadows – Gilman
Ben Pickett - John Carroll
Paul Fletcher-Hill - McDonogh
Another track and field meet, another uniform controversy.
This time, Reservoir's Kyle Mitchell was cited for wearing pants that had several Under Armour insignias on the waistband at Tuesday's Howard County championship meet. The national high school rule book, which has so many strange rules that have caused more weird situations in recent months, says that just one insignia can be on the waistband or the athlete can be disqualified.
Another local coach called Mitchell on it and tried to have him disqualified. But an appeals committee at the meet said that since a judge for the triple jump didn't call it at the actual event, everything was fine. Reservoir won the meet by 17 points, and it turned out that a DQ wouldn't have hurt the Gators much.
The question that us media folk asked Reservoir coach Phil Rogers afterward was how could his team's pants have several insignias if it was a violation of a national rule. The answer: Mitchell was jumping with the compression pants serving as his uniform pants.
Maybe it's time to bring lawyers to track meets?
-- Jeff Seidel
Several local athletes found success at two national indoor track meets last week in Boston and New York.
First, at the Nike Indoor National Meet in Boston, Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland team champion McDonogh did very well. The group of Kristen Brown, Jessica Caldwell, Jasmine Robinson and Autumne Franklin combined to finish first in the hurdle relay to win an indoor national championship.
McDonogh coach Jeff Sanborn said that the Eagles' winning time of 33.42 seconds ranks in the Top 10 of times ever run and gave them a victory margin of 1.24 seconds over a team from New Rochelle, N.Y.
An hour later, Brown and Robinson combined with Jordyn Glaser and Madeline Dulac to finish in seventh place in the sprint medley. They ended up .24 of a second out of sixth place -- which would have earned them All-American status.
Caldwell also finished third in the triple jump, and Brown took sixth in the 60-meter high hurdles while Justin Gross was third in the long jump. Each got All-American honors.
Tommy Butler of Francis Scott Key also had a big weekend. The Class 2A state champion in the high jump got a personal best of 6 feet, 8.25 inches, earning him third place and All-American honors.
He actually tied Tanner Anderson for second place. But since Anderson cleared it on his first jump and Butler did it on his last, the tie-breaker for second went to Anderson.
Archbishop Curley freshman Kyle Hunt won his heat of the freshman 400 in 54.08 and finished sixth overall to also get All-American status.
Kikanae Punyua of Wilde Lake continued his storybook season by running a personal best at the National Scholastic Indoor championships in New York. The Kenyan, who just took up running six months ago, ran 9:16 to earn All-American status there.
That was 20 seconds better than Punyua had ever run before.
-- Jeff Seidel
What a week of outstanding achievement in high school athletics among boy athletes.
When it came time to pick The Sun's boys Athlete of the Week, there were more possible winners than we sometimes have in a month.
Donya Jackson, a Calvert Hall basketball player and two-time Baltimore Catholic League defensive player of the year, had a breakout offensive week, scoring 27 points against Archbishop Spalding in the BCL quarterfinals and 29 points against then-No. 1 St. Frances in the semifinals.
When fellow Sun sportswriter Ken Murray heard those numbers he said, "And you have options better than that?"
This week we had a real competition.
Robbie Creese, a junior at Glenelg, won the 1,600 (4:22), 3,200 (9:56) and 800-meter races (1:58.11) at the 2A indoor state track meet. He won the 800 with the best time in the Baltimore area this year and broke a 26-year-old record in the process.
Mark Colabucci, a Reservoir junior, won the 145-pound East regional wrestling championship to lead his team to the regional title and improve his own record to 40-0.
Charlie Melesh, a senior at Annapolis, set state swim meet records in the 100 butterfly (53.03) and the 200 individual medley (1:57.41). He also swam on the team's first place 200 medley relay team (1:46.08.)
Three other nominees, Sam Pellerito of Carver A&T and Adikola Oliganju and Elton Joe, both of Digital Harbor, each won 2A North regional wrestling titles. In each case, the regional titles were the first in their respective schools' history.
So who took the honor?
Bobby Bowman, a senior wrestler at Mount St. Joseph.
He went into the National Prep Wrestling Tournament at Lehigh University last weekend as the No. 6 seed. Over two days of competition, he beat the No. 3 seed, Scott Patrick of McDonogh, the Maryland Independent Schools champion, and the No. 2 seed, James Wieller of Wyoming Seminary (Pa.).
Bowman lost 5-4 in the championship match to No. 1 seed Tanner Eitel of Bishop Lynch (Texas), who was at one point warned for stalling after Bowman had escaped to close within 5-4 and aggressively sought to get a take down. The Gael senior got it, but the match official judged Bowman's take down at the edge of the mat that came as the buzzer sounded, coming an instant too late.
"We watched the film four or five times," said Mount St. Joseph coach Paul Triplett. "It was a pretty dramatic finish and it could have gone either way. As the referee conferred with the assistant referee everyone in the building was chanting 'Two! Two!'
"It was a very, very close call. But I guess we needed an extra half second. Bobby wrestled really well."
Bowman's second-place finish allowed his team to finish fifth in the tournament in which 114 teams competed. He was also the highest finishing competitor from Maryland.
Any one of the aforementioned boys could have been Athlete of the Week. For those who wonder, the final choice was determined based on the fact that Bowman performed on the national stage against the best in the country.
There were a number of great performances in this week’s state track championships. On the team side, it was the first championship for each of the four schools who won -- the girls from Century, Western and Western Tech plus the boys from Carver.
Here’s a list of the athletes (and relay teams) who won state titles in the four classes.
Class 1A
Erika Hurd (Manchester Valley, 55 meters and high jump)
Amanda Gates (Manchester Valley, 55 hurdles)
Sasha Smallwood (Pikesville, repeats as pole vault champion)
Western Tech girls win the 1,600 and 3,200 relays (and the state title)
Harford Tech girls take 800 relay
Jawan Parker (Carver, 55; he also ran on the winning 800 relay).
Miguel Narine (Northwestern, 500 plus running on 1,600 and 3,200 relays. Donald Salmon and Devin Shaw ran on both of those also).
Blake Stein (Pikesville, 1,600)
Christopher Jackson (Forest Park, 55 hurdles)
Class 2A
Alyssa McClure (Digital Harbor, 55)
Aneesha Scott (Long Reach, 300)
Jacqueline Tape (Long Reach, 55 hurdles; Scott and Tape also ran on the winning 800 and 1,600 relays. Shay Scott and Nicole Vanagas also ran on both.)
Maura Linde (Century, 1,600, 3,200 and 1,600 relay).
Meghan Rose (Eastern Tech, shot put)
Kevin Swann (Lake Clifton, 55)
Gage Ealey (Oakland Mills, 300; he also ran on the winning 800 relay)
Robbie Creese (Glenelg, 800, 1,600, 3,200; sets class record in the 800)
Tommy Butler (F.S. Key, high jump)
Ryan Sullivan (Southern-AA, pole vault)
Class 3A
Brinae Robinson (Western, 500)
Becky Yep (Mount Hebron, 3,200)
Western girls wins 800 relay.
Eryn Donaldson (Mount Hebron, high jump)
Jordanna Lehmann (Herford, pole vault)
Kikanae Punyua (Wilde Lake, 3,200)
Chris Yamoah (Reservoir, high jump)
Yao Adantor (Reservoir, shot put)
Poly boys win 1,600 relay.
Class 4A
Lauren Allam (Chesapeake-AA, shot put)
Megan Wall (Dulaney, pole vault)
-- Jeff Seidel
Indoor track and freshmen sports programs in Carroll County appear to have escaped the budget ax — at least for now.
The county’s board of education, which originally had included both among the cuts in its proposed fiscal 2011 budget, amended the budget on Wednesday to tentatively spare the programs for another year. The decision, however, might be revisited if further cuts are required this spring.
“We survived the first round of cuts, and it’s pretty much a done deal,” South Carroll track coach Rob Pennington said. “We had our county meeting [Tuesday] night, and a couple of coaches and our supervisor were saying that pretty much unless something major comes up between now and [the official budget vote], it looks pretty good for us.”
To cover the costs, the county plans to raise participation fees for athletes from $80 to $100.
The initial decision to cut the programs, which would save approximately $123,000, sparked outcry from scores of athletes, coaches and parents, who launched online petitions and a Facebook group with more than 1,900 members.
Track athletes have been particularly vocal, packing board of education meetings and dawning black and white “Save Carroll County Indoor Track & Field” T-shirts.
“I think we made an impact— we showed them that we actually care,” said Jake Baugher, a Westminster High senior who helped lead the effort to save indoor track.
— Rich Scherr
The indoor track and field regionals, delayed for parts of two weeks by this month’s blizzards, were finally completed Friday. The state championships are next, and they will take place Monday (Class 1A and 2A) and Tuesday (Class 3A and 4A) at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex, starting at 3 p.m. each day.
Here’s a list of the 12 regional champions, including non-local teams. Most of these regionals took place this week, although a few happened as early as Feb. 1.
Class 1A
Central — Carver-Balt. City (boys), Pikesville (girls)
East — Fairmont Heights (boys), Harford Tech (girls)
West — Williamsport (boys), Smithsburg (girls)
Class 2A
Central — Edmondson (boys), Digital Harbor (girls)
East — North Caroline (boys), Kent Island (girls)
West — North Hagerstown (boys), Walkersville (girls)
Class 3A
Central — Poly (boys), Western (girls)
East — Reservoir (boys), River Hill (girls)
West — Damascus (boys and girls)
Class 4A
Central — Broadneck (boys), South River (girls)
East — Suitland (boys), C.H. Flowers (girls)
West — Thomas Johnson (boys and girls)
— Jeff Seidel
The weather problems that have closed schools Tuesday have once again affected the indoor track region meets.
The Class 2A Central and Class 3A West meets both were postponed. Now, the Class 3A West Region meet is set for Wednesday at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex at 4. The Class 3A West meet was pushed back to Friday at the Fifth Regiment Armory at 4 p.m.
Also, the summary of changes in the region meets last Friday left out the fact that the Class 1A Central meet will go Thursday at the Armory at 4 p.m.
The state meets remain scheduled for Monday and Tuesday of next week. That won't change as long as all of the region meets get completed by Friday. The state meets were already moved back a week because of the delays.
-- Jeff Seidel
The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association now hopes to have an updated version of its schedule for region and then state meets on Friday.
Eight of the 12 region meets still haven't been run -- and they were supposed to have been finished by Feb. 10. In addition, the state meets were scheduled to run for all four classes on Monday and Tuesday. But now they're going to have to come up with a schedule to fit in the region meets and give the athletes a chance to get themselves re-set for a state meet.
They already had some early plans to do region and state meets on both Monday and Tuesday. But unclear plans remained for some of the regions and two of the classes, and how all of the region and state meets will fit together. The state meets are scheduled to take place at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex in Landover.
We'll have more updated information on Friday. In addition, those details will be on the state's web site, mpssaa.org. Stay tuned, folks. This will be interesting.
-- Jeff Seidel
When the Friendship Academy of Science and Technology opened last year, principal Ian Roberts didn’t want the new Baltimore City school to have a run-of-the-mill mascot for its sports teams. He saw an obvious creative choice -- one that no other public school in Maryland had.
If you're FAST, you must be a cheetah.
“The school’s acronym spells out FAST, so we thought, ‘OK, fine. Which mascot should we go with? What mascot exemplifies fast and speed?’ In addition to that, that was one of my favorite animals as a track athlete. I always equated speed with the cheetah, so there are two pieces in choosing the mascot, the acronym of the school and we always want to remind our students that they are on the fast track,” Roberts said.
With his “personal bias,” Roberts said with a laugh, he may have “strong armed” the staff and students a bit when it came to choosing the mascot. He, however, knows a little something about speed.
A 2000 Olympian, Roberts reached the quarterfinals of the 800 meters, but he was tripped up and did not advance. The native New Yorker was a multiple All-American at Coppin State and at St. John’s. Now, he assists track coach Greg Burley whenever he can.
The school, which includes grades six, seven, nine and ten, had a pretty good JV track program last spring. The girls, led by Bobbie Jones, Otencia Vanzie and Deanna Morgan won the city’s innovative schools’ league while Brendan Thomas led the boys to third place.
Next spring, the track team will be a varsity squad competing in the city league. The Cheetahs also plan to compete in indoor track this winter.
Personally, I wouldn’t count out any track team called the Cheetahs.
When Jerry Martin coached track at Perry Hall, he would arrive every morning to work his pole vaulters at 5:45, teach all day and then put the rest of the team through its paces for two hours every afternoon. He did that for 31 years.
Those who ran for him admired not just his knowledge of the sport, but his dedication to the youngsters who made up his often highly successful teams.
The Gators won 38 Baltimore County track championships during Martin’s 31 years as coach, but his overall contribution to the Perry Hall community went much further than trophies. Recognizing that, school officials will dedicate the school's track to Martin, who passed away suddenly in June at 66, Thursday at halftime of the Gators’ 7 p.m. football game against Tuscarora.
“He was a very tough coach,” said David Marks, who ran cross country for Martin from 1988-90. “He was very strict, really pushed his team to the limits but on a personal level one of the fairest people I’ve ever met. He was a very demanding coach, but I think he gave all of us a sense of discipline that was really needed at that point in our lives.”
Martin began his coaching career at Dundalk High in 1968 and moved to Perry Hall in 1974. In addition to the track titles, his Gators won 12 straight county cross country championships between 1986 and 1997. His teams won a remarkable 83 percent of their dual meets in cross country, indoor and outdoor track.
“He knew every event like the back of his hand. He worked harder than anybody. He was just a consummate professional. He was the best coach I’d ever been around at any level -- a great motivator, his knowledge of the sport, his dedication to the sport,” said Brad Kressman, a Perry Hall physical education teacher and a former assistant to Martin who was one of the driving forces behind the track dedication.
Gators’ track teams often numbered more than 100 runners, said Kressman, making for quite a juggling act for Martin at practice.
“It was something to see,” said Kressman. “He would be in the middle and it was like a three-ring circus. There were so many kids and everybody was doing something different. If you didn’t see it, you wouldn’t believe it. He worked so hard.”
Marks remembers grueling workouts. His cross country team would run two miles to Gunpowder State Park as a warm up, then run hills at the park before running back to school to finish the workout.
Over Labor Day weekend, Marks and about 35 other former Gators and some of their spouses gathered at Perry Hall to run part of the cross country loop in Martin’s honor. Marks said the event, organized through Facebook, might become a more formal run in the future. He added that a Facebook page has been set up in Martin’s honor.
“It’s amazing the impact he had on the community at large,” said Marks, who is president of the Perry Hall Improvement Association. “Parents and grandparents of children who went to that school remember him. He was probably one of the most memorable teachers and coaches we’ve ever had at Perry Hall. His death was very sudden and it just had an impact on a lot of people.”
Photos of Jerry Martin by Kenneth K. Lam / Baltimore Sun / Nov. 16, 1995, and John Roemer IV / May 2, 2009
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