Maryland State Meet

11/13/99 at Hereford HS, Hereford MD
3 miles, very steep hills, including twice down and up a steep ravine called "the dip", sharp turns throughout and sidehill stretches

Girls Course Record falls twice in 3 hours!

Tenke Zoltani (left) shaved 3 seconds off the Hereford course record in the morning; but Middletown's Buzzell sisters (right) countered in the afternoon.  Freshman Emily, the shorter one, ran 18:57 to become the first girl ever to break 19 minutes on the dreaded hills of Hereford.  Randy finished 2nd as Middletown's 24 points gave them their third straight 2A title and third straight best overall state meet time for Maryland girls.  

Partial Highlights

Girls 3A: McDuff and Lawson ran together until they disappeared from sight 
around the final turn. When Lawson emerged, she had a sizeable gap on 
McDuff, which grew even larger over the final 150 meters.  Lawson thus defended her 3A title.
Walter Johnson won their 4th straight team title.

Boys 3A: Mike Styczynski set a meet record for all classes to help River Hill end South Carroll's championship string.

Girls 4A: Zoltani had the lead by 800 meters and led comfortably the rest of 
the way, with mile splits of 6:10 and 12:40. She went on to break the 
long-standing course record of Renee Berry by 3 seconds. 
A good showing by Karen Pulliam, of Quince Orchard, who 
finished second in 19:31.   Heavily favored CM Wright 
finished only 2 points ahead of Dulaney.   Expected contender Kacie Remeto 
fell down and was out of contention quickly.

Boys 2A: Former champion Van Tine led until the final uphill when he was caught by  Herrick, who  
then  pulled away. Van Tine slowed to a crawl in the  last 50 yards
and was passed by Shawn Spencer of Centennial for second.  Frederick County teams went 1-2-3. 
This time it was Urbana’s turn for a title. Linganore was 2nd, Middletown 
3rd.  In the past 3 weeks, each team has taken a championship between the Frederick County 
meet, the 2A West regional, and now the state meet.  

Girls 2A: All Middletown - Emily and Randy Buzzell went out hard, with Randy leading. They crossed 
the first mile in 6:06, four seconds ahead of Zoltani’s pace. Frande was not 
far behind. Randy and Emily were still together until 1.5 miles, when Emily 
pulled away on the hill after the dip.  Randy held together well, but Frande 
still stalked her. Rocky Morgan struggled and fell to tenth at one point, with 
Kathy Harrigan slowly making her way through the field until she was fifth. At two 
miles, Emily was at 12:40, matching Zoltani’s pace.  Her father and assistant Middletown 
coach Dave BuzzellI told her that and Emily really set her jaw for a last mile in 6:17, seven better 
than Zoltani earlier.  It made Emily the first girl to break 19 minutes on the difficult Hereford course.
Frande caught Randy Buzzell during the 
last turn and briefly moved ahead. Randy came back on her and the two of 
them kicked furiously the last 50 meters, with Randy edging her out.   It was 
almost a carbon copy of Randy's race 2 years ago when she edged Suzy McCullough (who won 
the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional today at Fort Frederick State Park).   Randy even 
bettered her time that year by three seconds, finishing in 19:33. Harrigan  
moved into fourth over the last mile, but was caught at the finish by Tricia O'Connell, 
who led Catonsville to a surprising second place finish with 84 points.  
Rocky Morgan recovered and settled for 7th.  Middleton's fifth finisher, Andrea Pope, was 11th, 
giving Middletown 24 points, the lowest of the meet and surely one of the lowest of all time 
in Maryland.   Middletown  averaged 20:02. Only 9 girls cracked 20 
minutes in the meet, and the MHS girls averaged that as a team!