In the girls 4x800 meter relay, Lake Braddock essentially broke the race open once leadoff runner Hayley Sullivan passed the baton to senior Erin Klein on the second leg.
Klein\'s 2:19 split gave the Bruins a 30-40 meter lead, which freshman Taylor Moore was able to maintain on the third leg and then the lead was increased further by anchor Shelley Presley.
Lake Braddock\'s winning time of 9:40.74 was well ahead of second place West Potomac\'s solid time of 9:54.34 with T.C. Williams taking the third spot at 10:02.64 and getting a very good anchor leg from talented freshman Erika Weidman.
The boys 4x800 relay saw Lake Braddock holding a slim lead after senior David Hogan\'s 2:03 leadoff carry, with T.C. Williams and West Springfield hanging close.
South County then made it a four team race at the halfway point, courtesy of Jeff Miller\'s strong second leg, but the race changed during the third leg with West Springfield\'s Mike Spooner in the mix.
Spooner moved his squad from third place to first place after going through the first 400 meters in 56 seconds and increased the lead over the field to 25 meters upon giving the baton to anchor Leo Walker after his 1:56.9 split.
Walker was able to fend off a strong challenge from T.C. Williams anchor Jeff Hernandez on the final lap in bringing West Springfield home in a state auto qualifier of 8:11.74 while T.C.Williams just missed a state auto with their second place finish in 8:13.24 and Lake Braddock claimed third in 8:18.64.
In the girls field events, Lake Braddock swept the top spots in the three events contested. Lake Braddock senior Teressa McCoy won the shot put with a seasonal best effort of 37 feet, 2 inches with junior Allison Jones also getting an indoor best with her second place throw of 35-1.5.
Bruins senior Anna Noguchi was the high jump winner at 4-10 on fewer misses over West Springfield senior Leah Vanatta with Allison Jones contributing further points to Lake Braddock\'s cause with a jump of 4-8 for third place.
The girls triple jump results seem to show the Patriot District as having that as one of the deepest events in the state at the district level.
Lake Braddock sophomore Melanie Akwule provided a mild upset with her seasonal best win at 37-0 as top seed Nakeisha Wineglass of Hayfield fouled on her first two attempts; had a clean jump on her third attempt at 36-4 and improved to 36-8.75 on her final attempt for second place.
West Potomac sophomore Kat Lee improved on her seasonal best with 36-4.25 for third place with high jump winner Anna Noguchi of Lake Braddock also with a seasonal best in fourth place (35-8.25).
The scoring was rounded out by Allison Jones of Lake Braddock placing in her third event of the evening (5th; 34-10) and with West Springfield\'s Lauren Adams notching a p.r. of 34-1 for sixth place.
In the boys field events, Lake Braddock junior Ian Prohaska was the pole vault winner at 12-8 with Annandale junior Alvin Siv the runnerup with a seasonal best mark of 12-2.
The boys shot put had the top three performers all come up with their best throws of the season. West Potomac senior A.J. Febrizio, in his first season of competition, exceeded his personal best by five feet with his winning toss of 48-1.75 followed by Annandale senior Andre Beharrie (47-5.5) and West Potomac\'s John Jordan (44-3).
In the triple jump, West Potomac recorded seasonal bests from the top two seeds in the event with senior Antoine Minter the winner at 44-7 over teammate Joshua Rodriguez (44-1).
The boys high jump turned out to be a fairly long duel into the evening between Joshua Rodriguez of West Potomac and South County junior Chris Bartholemew.
After both Rodriguez and Bartholemew were clean through 6-2 and then both missed their three attempts at 6-3, they entered into a jumpoff which required four extra attempts for each competitor before a Bartholemew clearance netted him the victory over Rodriguez with West Springfield\'s Andy Adell matching his season best with a 6-0 for third place.
The conclusion of the Patriot District Championships will be Saturday at Episcopal High School. The boys long jump will start at 8:00 a.m. and will then be followed by the girls long jump.
The girls pole vault begins at 8:45 a.m. Trials in the 55 hurdles and 55 dash for both boys and girls are to begin at 9:00 a.m. and the running event finals are slated for a 10:30 a.m. start. The meet concludes at 1:30 p.m.