The Langley boys barraged the field events and then never looked back in the running events while the George.C. Marshall girls pulled a mild upset in winning their first district title in eleven years at the Liberty District championships held at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex last week.
Marshall's girls team received an outstanding performance from senior Jacqueline Hargrove to push the Statesmen past pre-meet favorite Jefferson and also Langley.
Hargrove was involved in a whopping 60 of the 103 points accrued by Marshall. She broke her own meet record in winning the 300 dash with a region leading time of 41.01 and also claimed the shot put title with a throw of 29-3.25.
Hargrove also finished second in the high jump (5-0); long jump (16-8.25) and 55 dash (7.44) as well as running the fastest split on the second place 4x400 relay squad for the Statesmen.
Marshall also received a strong performance from senior Shannon McVey, who won the 55 dash in 7.42 after running a personal best 7.37 in the trials and McVey was also second in the 300 dash (42.48) and part of the runnerup 4x200 and 4x400 relay teams.
Jefferson placed second with 86 points, which they accomplished with just one victory during the meet, that with sophomore Kayley Sullivan just edging South Lakes senior Kaitlyn Williams at the finish line in the 500 dash, with both runners timed in 1:20.62.
Jefferson just edged Langley for the runnerup spot as the Saxons scored 85 points for third place. Langley's victories were in the pole vault with junior Morgan Danner (8-6) and in the 55 hurdles with senior Courtney Sample (9.00).
W.T. Woodson was a close fourth to Jefferson and Langley with their 82 point team total, with the Cavaliers accomplishing most of those points in the distance running events.
Senior Sarrah Hadiji had a dominating performance in setting two new meet records in individual events. Hadiji easily captured the 1,600 run for her first meet record in 5:06.68 and then came back in the 1,000 run to blister the field by almost twelve seconds with her winning time of 3:01.66.
Woodson also picked up the victory in the 3,200 run with sophomore Aaren Pastor winning in 11:45.69 and Pastor was also second in the 1,600 run at 5:17.07.
The Cavaliers also had Hadiji and Pastor combine with junior Shelby Walters and sophomore Sarah Haight to set a new meet record in the 4x800 relay of 9:41.30 as Hadiji anchored in 2:17.9.
Madison was fifth with 53 points with almost all of their scoring involving Veronica Day. The Warhawks senior repeated as district champ in both the long jump (17-3.5) and triple jump (35-11) and was also part of the winning 4x200 relay with sophomore Rachel Underhill and juniors Charlotte Diggs and Sarah Diggs at 1:49.42. The same foursome of Day, Underhill, Diggs and Diggs were also winners of the 4x4 in 4:12.83.
South Lakes was sixth with 47 points led by senior Leila Drici, who won the high jump at 5-0 and had a pair of third place finishes in the 55 hurdles (9.25) and 300 dash (42.97).
The Langley boys jumped out to a huge lead in the field events, keyed by their sweeping of the top five spots in the pole vault and a 1-2-3 finish in the long jump.
In all, the Saxons outscored the rest of the district combined by 25 points in the field events, where they racked up 90 of their title winning 158 points.
Senior Jordan Calderwood led the onslaught as he placed in four of the five field events. Calderwood won the high jump at a seasonal best 6-3 and was second in the triple jump (40-7.75), long jump (20-1.5) and pole vault (12-0).
On the track, Calderwood improved on his region leading time in the 55 hurdles with a win at 7.69 and was also part of the Saxons victorious 4x200 relay (1:36.31) which also included freshman Thomas Robinson, sophomore Matt Jaffe and junior Steve Rudelius.
The Saxons also picked up wins from freshman Peter Sanson in the long jump (20-4); junior Michael Chisholm in the pole vault (12-6) and Chris Yi in the 500 dash (1;07.90) as well as having senior Damon Dixon finish second in the high jump (6-2) and 55 hurdles (8.34); third in the triple jump (39-7) and fourth in the vault (11-0).
Jefferson was an easy second place with 122 points and had a double winner in senior Paul Norland, who won both the 1,600 (4:27.89) and 3,200 (9:59.07) titles.
The Colonials also set a new meet record in the 4x800 relay at 8:12.03 with the team of sophomores Timmy Galvin and Logan Gates along with seniors Ben Treweek and Taylor Bostick and also had Treweek claim the 1,000 run in 2:37.95 and senior Frank Nothaft the shot put (49-1.25).
Other winners included South Lakes senior Gabe Itoka easily defending his 55 dash title in 6.61; Madison senior Mark Williamson the winner of the 300 dash at 36.36; Marshall junior Lance Cheng claimed the triple jump top spot at 41-0.5 and W.T. Woodson won the 4x400 relay with their team of juniors Gavin Pincus and Ryan Cheney along with seniors Kevin Todd and Steve Honan in 3:34.68.