The Westfield girls and Centreville boys teams captured the team titles at the Concorde District championships held at the Prince George\'s Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, MD on Thursday, February 9.
Yes, it is true. The Concorde, along with the Liberty District, travel across the Potomac River and around the Beltway into Maryland to the very nice Prince George\'s facility next to FedEx Stadium, primarily to give their competing athletes a chance to display their abilities under top flight conditions.
With Fairfax County continuing to have no indoor facility that they can just call their own, traveling to P.G. for district championships for Northern Virginia schools still appears to be the best solution at this time.
On the girls side, Westfield had to hold off a strong challenge from defending champion Centreville in winning the team title with 130 points as Centreville scored 115 points for second place and Oakton was third with 87 points.
Westfield sophomore Kerry Hartman was the big point scorer for the Bulldogs. Hartman was the winner of the 1,600 run in 5:11.36 after battling Oakton senior Kayley Byrne in an exciting duel down the homestretch with Byrne a close second at 5:11.45 and Jenny Hovland of Robinson (5:12.85), Oakton\'s Meredith Tighe (5:14.89) and Lia Divalentin of Chantilly (5:15.85) all posting atuomatic state qualifying times in the deepest distance district race in the state this season.
Hartman then once again set the pace in the 1,000 run along with fellow sophomore teammate Tasia Potasinski, as they gapped the rest of the field by the end of the first lap on the 200 meter unbanked track, with Hartman pulling away in the final 20 meters for the win in 3:03.76 and Potasinski the runnerup at 3:04.28.
Hartman and Potasinski were also part of the meet record setting 4x800 relay squad along with Brittany Sevachko and Jessie Hartman the week before at the P.G. Complex, when that race along with a majority of field events and running trials were held, as they posted a time of 9:36.15 to edge Oakton (9:36.85).
Westfield\'s other victories were by senior Aimee Kodat in the shot put (37-1.25); sophomore Haley Boone in the 55 hurdles (9.06) and the 4x400 relay team of Potasinski, Christin Zink, Kathryn Lynn and Sevachco which also established a new meet record of 4:05.75.
Centreville had the high point scorer of the meet in Brittni Finch. The talented sophomore recorded four wins as she won the long jump by almost two feet at 18-1.5; the triple jump by almost four feet (36-2.75); the high jump at 4-10 and the 55 dash in 7.36.
The Wildcats also posted wins from junior Cate Tisinger in the 500 dash (1:17.55) and the 300 dash from sophomore Jordan Grant (41.47) with Tisinger second in 41.92.
The other wins were by Chantilly senior Nicole Kazuba in the pole vault, where she equalled her personal best at 11-0; Oakton\'s Kayley Byrne in the 3,200 run where she gathered just enough momentum down the homestretch to win the 3,200 run in 11:20.43 over race pacesetting freshman Annie Hovland of Robinson (2nd; 11:21.32) and by the Robinson 4x200 relay squad of Leigh Anne Baxter, Lauren Hallauer, Brittany Kuhn and Danielle Hayler which established a new meet record of 1:46.36.
The Centreville boys had a relatively easier time in posting their team victory with 134 points while Robinson placed second with 91 points and Westfield (70 points) edged Herndon (67) and Oakton (64) for third place.
Centreville notched wins in seven of the fifteen events with junior Brandon Williams in the 55 dash (6.66) and senior Jamal Crowelle dominating the field in the 55 hurdles (7.66) in addition to winning the triple jump (42-4).
Also, Brandon Davis was the long jump winner (20-11.5) while senior Alex Grant posted a victory in the high jump (6-0) and the Wildcats were winners of both the 4x200 relay with Crowelle, Williams, Davis and Cameron Dohse (1:33.80) and the 4x4 with Crowelle, Davis, Dohse and junior Mark Hogan (3:34.17).
Runnerup Robinson had two victories as senior Tommy Barrineau was a decisive winner in the 500 dash (1:06.42) and the Rams all senior 4x800 relay team of Barrineau, Christian Witcher, Chris Clark and Mark Hussa set a new meet record of 8:05.03.
Westfield had a trio of wins coming from senior Andrew Pittman in the shot put (50-8), junior Kevin Dillard in the 300 dash (36.74) and senior David Newkirk in the pole vault (13-6).
Herndon\'s Ermin Mujezinovic was a double winner and employed the same strategy in both of his races of a very strong burst in the final 100 meters after hanging just off the pace for most of the race. Mujezinovic first surpised a very strong field in the 1,600 run with his late surge to win going away in 4:24.90 and then came back later in the evening in the 1,000 run utilizing the same tactics to post another solid win in 2:38.06.
The other individual victory was by Oakton senior Matt Kroetch in the 3,200 run. Kroetch broke away from the field in the second half of the race and was never seriously challenged as he claimed a surprisingly easy win by 40 meters in 9:39.74 over a good field which saw the top seven runners all go below 10 minutes.