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DyeStat 2001 Indoor
sponsored by the Friends of Indoor Track
FIT Relays:
Lake Braddock is now the team to beat
by Pearl Watts
The Lake Braddock boys and girls track and field squads have established themselves as the early season teams to beat after their impressive showing at the 6th Annual Friends of Indoor Track (F.I.T.) Relays on Saturday at the George Mason Fieldhouse.
The Bruins won five of the eight seeded varsity relays including three of four by the Lake Braddock girls and two by the boys in the meet involving almost the entire region plus many of the top suburban Maryland schools and also teams from D.C. and Delaware.
On the girls side, Lake Braddock looked strong in both the distance and speed events. The Bruins easily defended their 1999 title in the distance medley relay as their squad of Heather McCarthy (1,200 meters), Louise Beale (400), Cheryl Carr (800) and anchor Kelly Swain (1,600) won by more than seven seconds with their winning time of 12:43.9. The Bruin girls were also convincing winners in the 4x200 and 4x400 meter relays. The 4x200 team of seniors Shawnette Adams, Sarah Beale, sophomore Meredith Brill and junior Alexandra VanHeuven ran an automatic state qualifying time of 1:45.9 and in so doing bested perennial Maryland powers Eleanor Roosevelt (2nd; 1:47.1) and Largo (3rd; 1:47.7). Lake Braddock also ran an excellent early season time of 4:01.7 for the win in the 4x400 with the quartet of Sarah Beale, Adams, VanHeuven and Brill with Eleanor Roosevelt (4:04.6) and Largo (4:07.2) second and third once again as the Bruins finished almost ten seconds faster than their next closest Northern Region pursuer.
In the field events Lake Braddock also produced some top results with VanHeuven winning the triple jump at 35 feet nine inches with Adams second at 35-0 while pole vaulter Sarah Monaco (9-6) and shot putter Catherine Muehlieb (33-0.75) chipped in with third place finishes for the Bruins.
Lake Braddock finished third last year at the Northern Region girls championship but returned many of their top performers this year and also look to be greatly aided by senior twins Sarah Beale and Louise Beale, who are British exchange students. Bruins coach Bob Digby said, "it's still early, but the girls team performed well today. It's been a while since Braddock has had a 4x200 and 4x400 running that fast."
In the other girls seeded varsity race, Jefferson broke their own meet record in the 4x800 relay with the team of Lucy Terrell, Andrea Lopez, Ana Avramovic and Kelley Otstott rolling to a six second win in 9:42.3. That eclipsed the Colonials' 1999 standard of 9:43.2 with Otstott on anchor running the fastest split of the day in a smooth 2:17.6.
Other area winners included junior Bonnie Meekins of Oakton, who turned back a strong field in winning the high jump at 5-6 and W.T. Woodson showed signs of future promise in winning the freshmen-sophomore 4x200 (1:53.5) and 4x400 (4:15.7) relays with the same foursome each time of Kate Griendling, Julia Rothlisberger, Cassie Grose and Gina Om.
The Lake Braddock boys team is the defending regional champion and although they were hit hard by graduation this past year, they also look to be among the teams to beat. The Bruins put a state qualifying time on the board earlier in the day with their win in the 4x800 as the team of Jimmy Judge, Dave Vitto, Peter Gardella and Frank Francois were victors in 8:13.1. In the last event of the day, the 4x400 relay, Atlee surged to a twenty meter lead on the opening leg courtesy of Brian Ford and gradually lengthened their lead to close to thirty meters. Frank Francois (49.6) on anchor for Lake Braddock made up about five meters on the first 200 meter lap and then made a huge move on the backstretch of the second lap, finally catching Atlee in the middle of the final straight to bring the team which also included Jim Burrell, Pat Buchanan and Jimmy Judge home for the win in 3:29.7 with Atlee second in 3:30.2 in one of the more exciting races of the day.
Francois said, "I feel like I'm a lot stronger this year than last, I worked pretty hard in fall on conditioning and it seems to be paying off right now."
Besides Francois, another sprinter who appears to be reaping dividends from fall training is Hayfield's Ron Richards. The senior was the Patriot District outdoor champ in the 200 dash last year but with an expected move up in distance for college next year, went out for the cross country team and made the varsity top seven. Richards was instrumental on Saturday in helping the Hawks to a second place finish in the 800 relay; fourth in the 1,600 relay and sixth in the 3,200 relay.
The other seeded boys varsity winner from the area was Oakton in the distance medley with their team of Phil Gaeta (1,200), Teddy Presley (400), Matt Gold (800) and Matt Maline on the anchor 1,600 leg in 10:43.7 with Maline splitting 4:24 in taking the Cougars from fourth to first on his carry.
Lake Braddock took both of the freshmen-sophomore relays, setting a meet record in the 4x200 at 1:35.6 with their team of Mike Yakovac, Dan Wilson, Jeremy McCain and Craig Gallimore and the Bruins captured the 4x400 in 3:38.7 with their young squad of Yakovac, Gallimore, Dan Wilson and Gilbert Elston.
In the field events, the region was unable to notch a victory although it did record three second place finishes. In the high jump Garrett Brickner of Lake Braddock tied his personal best of 6-6 with Greg McCormick of Middletown defending his 1999 title with a new meet record effort of 6-9. Val Osipenko of Atlee also defended his 1999 title in the pole vault and broke his own meet record by a foot and a half in winning the event at 14-9 with David Sullivan of Centreville second (14-0) and Sullivan's Centreville teammate Mark Kupets third at 13-6. The shot put saw Robinson sophomore Steve Huntzinger set a personal best of 48-4.5 with Atlee's Matt Miller the winner at 48-10.25 and in the Glory Days Grill Special Olympics 4x100 relay, Edison was the winner with their fellow Franconia Road feeder school Mark Twain Middle School the runnerup.
Almost all of the Northern Region schools will now be relegated to practice duties only with the winter holidays approaching. Meets will resume in earnest with a twelve school "triple quad" at Thomas Jefferson Community Center in Arlington on January 5 with another dozen schools hooking up at Episcopal High in Alexandria on January 6
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