The Langley boys team looks determined to give defending champion Jefferson all they can handle after day one of the Liberty District Championship held at the Prince George\'s Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, MD yesterday evening.
Langley was able to rack up a total of 60 points in the four finals contested last night, creating essentially about a 30 point swing.
The Saxons big event was the pole vault, where they pt up half their points thus far as they swept the top five places in scoring on a 10-8-6-4-2-1 basis, led by junior Michael Chisholm\'s victory at 12 feet 6 inches as he equalled his personal best.
Langley also swept the top three spots in the long jump with freshman Peter Sanson, seeded just sixth coming into the event, the upset winner with a p.r. best by more than a foot and a half at 20-4.
Jefferson is currently in second place with 23 points and received wins by senior Frank Nothaft in the shot put with a seasonal best mark of 49-1.25 and from their 4x800 meter relay team of sophomores Logan Gates and Timmy Galvin along with seniors Ben Treweek and Taylor Bostick as they broke Langley\'s ten year old meet record of 8:14.54 with their 8:12.03 clocking.
In running event trials also contested yesterday evening, Langley put up the two fastest times in the 55 hurdle semis with seniors Jordan Calderwood at 7.87 and Damon Dixon with an 8.38.
Calderwood also produced a pair of second place finishes in the field events with marks of 12-0 in the pole vault and 20-1.5 in the long jump.
South Lakes senior Gabe Itoka led all qualifiers in the 55 meter dash with a time of 6.61 in the trial heats and then equalled that 6.61 time again in the semifinals.
Madison senior Mark Williamson posted the top time in the 300 dash trials at 36.49 followed by juniors Nick Vaughn of South Lakes, who had run on the Seahawks 4x8 earlier in the evening, at 36.96 and Langley junior Chris Yi also at 36.96.
On the girls side, Marshall is the early leader after four events with 31 points in what was essentially the Jacqueline Hargrove show.
The Statesmen senior won the shot put at 29-3.25, finished second in the high jump at 5-0 and was also the runnerup in the long jump with a mark of 16-8.25.
Hargrove also posted the second fastest time in the 55 dash semis at 7.59 and in her last event of the day broke her own distict meet record of 42.19 in the 300 dash trials with a clocking of 41.48.
Langley sits in second place with their 26 points spread evenly throughout and Madison is currently third with 18 points, led by defending champion Veronica Day\'s win in the long jump at 17-3.5.
Woodson has 16 points in fourth place and set a new district meet record in the 4x800 relay at 9:41.30 with their team of junior Shelby Walters, sophomores Aaren Pastor and Sarah Haight and senior Sarrah Hadiji with Pastor posting a 2:23 split on the second leg and Hadiji anchoring home in 2:17.9.
South Lakes is tied for fifth with 13 points and received a fine showing from senior Leila Drici, who won the high jump at 5-0; led all qualifiers in the 55 hurdles at 9.27 in the semis after running 9.15 in the trials and posted the second fastest time in the 300 dash trials behind Hargrove of Marshall at 42.55.
In the 55 dash qualifying, Marshall senior Shannon McVey was the story as she posted the fastest time in the trials at 7.42 and then zipped to a personal best of 7.37 in the semis.
The meet will conclude next Thursday, February 8, also at the P.G. Sports and Learning Complex.