9th Annual MoCo Invitational Track & Field Championships
Written by: Kelechi Ukpabi
LANDOVER, MD- The Mid-Atlantic region's best high school athletes were on display at the Prince Georges County Sports and Learning Complex to take part in the Ninth Annual Montgomery County Invitational. Students from over 100 schools battled cold the cold temperatures outside to make the trip, which showcases the best in track and field in our area.
The usual powerhouse suspects were at it again as Northwest, DeMatha and Damascus high schools took home the most honors and were the most dominant at the meet.
The meet got started with the boys 4 x 3200 relay. The relay consisted of four heats that were broken down by skill level; heat 4 being the most competitive. Sherwood, Bladensburg, and Atholton took heats 1, 2, and 3 respectively.
The big race in the boys 3200 relay was the 4th heat were Damascus jumped out to a big lead in the first leg followed by DeMatha and Walter Johnson. Damascus maintained their led throughout all the legs and carried a 40 meter lead into the anchor.
In a strange turn of events in the anchor leg, girls warming up almost got ran over by the boys running the 3200 relay, but all was well and Damascus finished the race with a time of 8:05.6, beating 2nd place DeMatha by more than 8 seconds.
Next was the girls 4 x 3200 relay which had three heats, the third and last heat being the stronger field of runners. Concord High took the first two heats with times of 10:31 and 10:08. The final heat was a showdown between Northwest and Walter Johnson that remained painstakingly close until the anchor leg when Northwest showed why they are the premier track school in the county.
Northwest turned on the jets and nearly doubled their 10 meter lead they were maintaining throughout the race. Northwest went on to take the girls 3200 relay crown with a time of 9:45.2, nearly 8 seconds better than Walter Johnson.
The much anticipated boys mile was the next event. The boys mile featured Billy Ledder of Gonzaga High School. Ledder is an All-American in both indoor and outdoor track and was the Nike Indoor National Champion last year. Ledder came out of the blocks at a frantic pace, leading the race at the 400m, 600m, 800, and 1000m marks.
He was then taken over briefly by Yazid Zouaimia of Centerville High at the 1200m and 1400m marks. Billy then showed the capacity crowd his championship form when he took over at the 1500m mark and went on to cruise to victory by posting a time of 4:16.1. The crowd stood to its feet to give Ledder the deserved ovation.
Ariel Karabinus of Osbourn Park was the runner to watch in the girls mile. Karabinus is the only competitor in this race's history at the MoCo Invitational to win it three times. She was looking to add to her record by winning for a fourth time, but Page Kvartunas of West Springfield was not going to make it easy.
Kvartunas led the race at the 600m, 800m, 1000m, and 1200 mark and looked to be on her way to stop Karabinus from reaching her fourth mile win at MoCo. Nevertheless, Karabinus showed her grit and shear will power and she came in strong after the 1300m mark and went on to take her fourth consecutive mile crown at MoCo with a time of 5:01.8, locking her place in the meet's history.
In the boys 1600, the final and strongest heat was won by Rever of Dulaney High who won with a time of 4:26.3. Dulac of McDonogh High was the winner of the girls 1600 final heat.
Chambers of Curley High took home the boys 400m in 50.3 and Scott of Eleanor Roosevelt won the girls 400m with a time of 55.5.
The boys 800m was captured by Creese of Glenelg High in 1:58.0 and Robinson of Churchland High took the girls 800m with a 2:20.7 time.
Matasakis of Mt. Hebron won the boys 3200m in 9:43.4 and Yep of Mt. Hebron won the girls 3200 with a time of 11:05.4
The much anticipated boys 800 relay was won by DeMatha who posted a time of 1:30.8, nearly four seconds ahead 2nd place Good Counsel.
The girls 800 relay was dominated by Northwest. The girls from Gaithersburg posted a time of 1:44.7, three ticks ahead of Friendly.
The boys distance medley was won by Loyola High with a combined time of 10:40.2 and Mountain View High took the girls distance medley in 13:07.0
DeMatha won the boys 1600 relay in 3:27.8 and the Northwest girls struck again taking the girls 1600 crown in 4:01.8
