The meet will be enjoying its third year of competition at the Prince George\'s Sports and Learning Complex\'s fine facility as well as its second year of individual event competition after spending years at the GMU Fieldhouse in Fairfax while conducting the meet in a mostly relay format.
The meet will still be involving the basic staples of indoor relay racing with the 4x200 meter, 4x400 and 4x800 relays on tap as well as the distance medley relay (1200; 400; 800; 1,600) for both boys and girls.
The 4x2 and 4x4 relays on the girls side could be especially compelling with two of the premeir sprint squads on the East Coast, Eleanor Roosevelt (MD) and Bethel (VA), coming in with very fast seed times for those events. That would leave you to believe they are planning on putting together at least close to their swiftest quartets.
In the girls 4x2, Roosevelt is the defending champion at 1:45.44 seconds but Bethel may choose to line up Francena McCorory. The Bethel junior is the defending indoor 55 meter and outdoor 100 and 200 dash AAA champion who just zipped to the #2 all time performance in the 300 dash at 37.60 in New York last weekend, with the squads from Chantilly, Hayfield and Centreville looking to also be capable of running under 1:50.
Bethel and Roosevelt also could be the class of the field in the girls 4x4 as both schools look to dip under the 4:00 minute barrier while the 4x800 relay has Eleanor Roosevelt the top seed by a large margin with most of their runners back from the team which posted a superior outdoor clocking of 9:11.16 at last year\'s prestigious Penn Relays.
The boys sprint relays could be more balanced with always strong DeMatha, Archbishop Carroll with junior Randy Lee, Oxon Hill, T.C. Williams and Hayfield among the top contenders.
In individual events, the girls 55 hurdles looks very strong with fine all around performer Katie Rogus of Good Counsel (MD); Bever-Leigh Holloway of Roosevelt, who was third indoors in the 55 hurdles and fourth outdoors in both the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles at the Md. 4A state meet; Brooke Point senior Chadnee Green, fourth outdoors in the 100 hurdles at the Va. AAA state meet; Westfield senior Karen Woolley, the defending 100 and 300 hurdle Northern Region outdoor champ and all state performer Chantill Harvey of Deep Creek.
The boys 55 hurdles is headlined by junior Chris Bell of Granby (VA) who in 2003 became the first freshman to ever win the 110 high hurdles at the AAA state meet and then won it again this past spring as a sophomore.
The girls 55 dash has senior Murielle Ahoure of Hayfield, 4th indoor states last year with a personal best of 7.21 and who was also the Northern Region champ last year in both the 100 and 200 dash events along with Favia Merritt of Great Mills and Bethel sophomores Essence Roberts and Crystal Carrington while the boys 55 dash features Larrone Moore of Northwestern, the defending Maryland 4A champ outdoors in the 100 meters at 10.92.
The girls favorite in the 1,600 run looks to be senior Kelsey Snowden of Lake Braddock, the state meet runnerup last year both indoors in the 1,000 run (3:00.27) and outdoors in the 800 run where she has a p.r. of 2:14.84. The boys 1,600 could be a battle between Va. Patriot District foes Mark Hussa of Robinson, with a best of 4:20.68 as a sophomore last year and Hayfield senior Brian Fussell, last spring\'s outdoor state winner in the 800 at 1:55.97 with Woodlawn (Md.) sophomore Dwight Parker and Western Branch senior Adam Hutton possible factors.
The girls 500 dash should be one of the highlights of the meet with the Roosevelt pair of Carliesa Meaks and Patricia Anyanwu, Hayfield junior Nakeisha Wineglass, Bethel\'s Megann Lawrence, senior Susan Brooks of Robinson and Centreville sophomore Cate Tisinger all looking to go under 1:20.
The boys 500 dash may be the property of junior Randy Lee of Carroll. Lee provided one of the highlights of the Penn Relays last year with his come from behind anchor leg split of 1:51.8 in the 4x800 relay for the winning 7:44.42 Carroll squad and will be looking for a time under 1:05.
The girls 1,000 run has pacesetting Andria Smallwood of Ballou entered as the top seed and also includes sophomore Tameka Jameson of Roosevelt, who was state 4A runnerup last year as a freshman in both the 800 run and 500 dash (1:16.92) indoors as well as the 800 run outdoors (2:15.09). The boys 1,000 run will see Hussa of Robinson doubling back from the 1,600 with Thomas Jefferson senior Chris Katilie among the favorites as well.
The girls 300 dash is wide open with Roberts and Carrington from Bethel, Meaks of Roosevelt and Ahoure of Hayfield a few of the favorites, while the boys 300 dash is wide open as well with 55 dash top seed Larrone Moore of Northwestern and Granby hurdle standout Chris Bell among the top entries.
The girls 3,200 run has all state indoor performer Erin Klein of Lake Braddock with the top seeded entry time while the boys 3,200 run features Va. AAA all state cross country performers junior Brad Siragusa of Chantilly, Lee senior Dawit Legesse, sophomore Mike Spooner from West Springfield and also Lake Braddock senior Brad Clark, who was the runnerup in the event last year.
The field events will also showcase many of the area\'s top athletes and there are excellent sightlines for all spectators in viewing the action, which is totally contained in the infield area.
The girls long jump has Deep Creek junior Chantill Harvey, seventh outdoors last year at states with a p.r. of 17 feet, 11 inches, along with Shakirra Pinnock from Bethel, senior Abby Lauer of Jefferson and Good Counsel\'s Katie Rogus. The boys long jump has West Potomac junior Antwane Minter as the top seed, with Minter the defending Northern Region outdoor champ at 21-11.
The girls triple jump has Hayfield\'s Nakeisha Wineglass, last year\'s state runnerup at 37-2, as one to watch while the big boomer on the boys side should be Granby\'s Dionne McClain, who posted an impressive leap of 49-1 to capture the Va. AAA state outdoor title last spring.
The girls high jump is an early season preview of the Va. AAA state meet and pits sophomore Ashley Gatling of Deep Creek, the outdoor champ last year at 5-8 with a p.r. of 5-10 against Lake Braddock senior Ashley Haislip, the defending indoor state champion and record holder at 5-8.5 with junior Jonee Artis of Deep Creek (5-7) also in the field, while the boys high jump is a pick\'em affair with Jefferson\'s Brian Hansen and Ed Baldwin of Edison coming in with the top marks thus far this season.
The girls shot put has Deep Creek senior Jessica Wade, fourth at states outdoors at 38-3 as one of the favorites, while the boys shot looks like a hook-up between seniors Julio Villatoro of Annandale and Lake Braddock\'s Jon Cowden.
The girls pole vault has Chantilly\'s Nicole Kazuba, last year\'s Northern Region runnerup outdoors, as the top seed while the boys vault has Tyler Tucker of Robinson and Chantilly\'s Dominic Lauchengco both coming in with p.r.\'s of 13-0.
Finally, meet management would like to thank in advance all the athletes, volunteer help, parents, friends and other spectators who have once again helped to make this meet a continued success.