By Sanjana Jain, Staff Writer
River Hill High School hosted the annual Howard County Track and Field Championships for the second year in a row on May 9 and 10. Over the two days, all twelve Howard County schools participated in the 18 events that were held. The events were scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m, and were expected to run till 7 p.m. Unlike a regular inter-school meet, since this was County’s, only a limited number of athletes were allowed to be entered per event, with the maximum number of events an athlete could participate in being 4.
On May 9, the meet began with the preliminary rounds for the 100m dash, 200m dash, 100m hurdles (33″ for the girls) and 110m hurdles (39″ for the boys). Out of all the heats for the track events, only the athletes with the top 8 times for each event progressed to the finals round which was held the following day. Simultaneously, field events like discus, for the girls, shot put, for the boys, pole vaulting, and long jump occurred. For the field events, the top 25 athletes progressed to the Regionals round.
The weather during Counties was surprisingly bright and warm – a drastic contrast to the atmosphere just days prior. Even with the pleasant weather, our athletes were feeling pre-race jitters, especially during finals. Senior distance runner Jad Khleif said he’s “excited to see what our team can do, what our guys can do…since a lot of them can win their individual races” but personally was “a little bit stressed since I need to get everything set up.” Long distance runner, freshman Quinlan Ballou, was unfortunately not feeling his best like he normally does before a race, but was still trying to remain optimistic: “I did a race yesterday and my legs are feeling a little bit tired but I know that I can’t use that as an excuse for how I perform today…I’ll just do the best I can.”
Sophomore Gabrielle Demuren, a short and long sprinter, said, “I’m feeling really nervous because I really want to PR [set a personal record] in my 400 but I’m also very excited because I think that I can do it today. I hope the team can do good in all their events and we can do good in the relays.” Junior Jacob Cohen, one of the only sprinters who specializes in hurdles, expressed how he’s feeling “a little nervous but excited. I just wanna try to live in the moment and beat my previous PR of 48.75s.” Hurdling teammate, senior Alex Thompson said he’s feeling “pretty good. It’s a lot, but you know, it’s not a long meet…and I’m still equally nervous; I’m just trying to hide it.”
Howard County schools have been racing against each other for decades, but River Hill is always seen as tough competition by the other athletes. From the sprinter’s side, senior Olivia Hammond, a short sprinter from Howard stated, “River Hill is a really good team, we’ve always run against [them] in the 4x100m and the 4x200m. I just think it’s going to be a good race regardless.” Olivia’s teammate, senior Kiara Murray, who is a short sprinter and participates in long jump, had a positive outlook towards River Hill: “We’ve done it before, we can do it again. It’s really fun and they keep us motivated and wanting to either catch up with them, level up with them or be ahead of them.” Hurdler Ademide Gbadehan, a sophomore from Howard, was excited to see Larasia Buckner from River Hill run the 300m hurdles. “That makes me a little bit nervous but I am excited to see how she does and how I do compared to [Larasia],” she said.
From Marriotts Ridge, junior Abigail Eldridge,whose favorite event is the 400m dash, said she “[hadn’t] looked at the heat sheets for times and everything but I’m always excited to compete against the other schools.” From Wilde Lake, senior Zakaiel Crawford said running against River Hill is “actually kind of fun …because they’re always like ‘oh we’re going to beat you’ and I’m like nah.”
When the final results were polled and the points that were collectively gathered by each team were counted, the Oakland Mills boys team had racked up an impressive 174.66 points, putting them in 1st place. Their girls team also performed extremely well, and had accumulated 104 points, placing them second. The girls team that came in first was Howard’s, setting their second highest score for the 2022 outdoor season to 181 points, falling just shy of their previous record of 208.
The River Hill varsity track and field team successfully competed in several events at the County’s meet, and will be moving on to the Regionals round. Regionals will be held at Reservoir High School on May 19 and 21, and overseen by Coach Phil Rogers, the program director for Cross Country and Track and Field for the last 18 years at Reservoir. Depending on each individual’s or relay team’s performance at Regionals, some may progress to the state-level competition, where athletes from around Maryland will meet to compete at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex, Landover, MD.