In the second day of the outdoor track and field state championships Friday, there were plenty of Howard County athletes with top finishes and runners who qualified for Saturday's finals, but only Centennial's Elijah White walked away from Hughes Stadium at Morgan State University touting a state championship.
White – also a basketball standout for the Eagles – placed first in the boys 3A high jump, reaching 6-feet, 2-inches. The win helped Centennial enter the final day of events with a fourth-place team standing in 3A boys, touting 16 points – 11 away from first-placed South Hagerstown.
River Hill is second overall in girls 3A with Howard also touting a second-place standing in the girls 4A team scores, while on the boy's side, the Lions are currently ranked 10th.
In the first event of the day, Atholton pushed through a third-place finish in the girls 3A 4x800-meter relay. The team of Fanny Yayi-Bondje, Elly Van Vranken, Holly Ann Huff-Edsall and Gabriella DeGrezia were running side-by-side with Damascus throughout the entire race as the two teams were the clear front-runners, but on the last leg Urbana surpassed both the Raiders and Hornets. Northern-Calvert made up ground as well and took second, while the Raiders finished third with a time of 9 minutes and 33.12 seconds, beating out Damascus who took fourth.
"It was definitely on the fourth leg, because for me I was just thinking about Damascus the whole time," Yayi-Bondje said. "It's so weird because we've been training in this weird Maryland weather, with rain, with storms and with all this heat but we all pushed hard. We did amazing, no matter what the place was, I couldn't be happier with my team. It didn't stop us."
River Hill finished strong and placed fifth (9:55.82), while Reservoir took eighth (10:05.76) and Centennial 11th (10:21.01).
"Each 800 race we competed a little different," Huff-Edsall said. "Like sometimes they'll do their fast lap a little faster, but it just depends on who you're running with. I think I ran great today. I know I PR'd and I know we all PR'd, so it's just every race holds a new surprise."
"I'm just so glad we all got to run as a team for the last time and for Fanny – her last time throughout all of high school," DeGrezia added.
Yayi-Bondje is looking forward to one more race on Saturday in the girl's 4x400-meter relay.
"I have tomorrow the 4x4 so it's a great way to finish off not only my season, but my high school career," she said. "So I'm really and pumped for that."
Courtney Mann anchored the Lions 4x800-meter relay team to a fourth place standing in 4A, finishing with a time of 9 minutes and 44.36 seconds. Mann also ran in the 3,200-meter race and placed 11th with a time of 11 minutes and 49.16 seconds.
As for the Howard boys, its best outing on the day came in the 4x8.
With just a couple lengths until the finish line, Erik Jenks made sure to make up as much ground as he could and get the Lions a second-place standing. His effort gave Howard a .03 second edge over third-place finisher, South River and cemented his team a silver medal on the day.
"I couldn't believe I let them pass me in the end there," Jenks recalled, as he, Rupam Mondal, Joesph Lapointe and Matthew Eastman finished with a time of 7 minutes and 59.26 seconds. "So I was like I got to get someone at the end and I was just thinking push, push, push, mentality."
"We were all ready for this I think and we all ran really well," Lapointe added.
The quartet won the same event at the 4A indoor state championships this past winter, despite finishing last a year ago.
"Considering how nervous I was – I don't know if they saw it, but I had drumming in my fingers – I was really nervous because I knew today's competition was the hardest I've faced in my entire life so far," Eastman said. "I didn't feel my best at regionals, but today I just decided to leave it all out there and Joey putting out there in first, I had the push to keep us out there in first and I don't know if I made a bigger gap, but that's what I wanted to do and I did exactly what I came out here to do."
Rupam said the hot conditions didn't affect their performance at all and as a team accomplished their goal of running a sub-8-minute time.
"Honestly these are optimal conditions," he said. "I mean it's hot, but you hydrate and it's not a factor. We just prepared ourselves and made sure this wouldn't get to us. We wanted sub-8 and we got sub-8."
In the same event but on the 3A side, Kevin Fitzgerald anchored River Hill to a fourth-place standing (8:11.42) ahead of Mt. Hebron (8:13.58) who finished fifth, while Wilde Lake (8:18.14) and Reservoir (8:22.96) crossed one after another for seventh- and eighth-place, respectively.
River Hill senior Anna Latzko finished her varsity career on a high note, finishing third overall in the girls 3A 3,200.
"This is probably my best outdoor track season," Latzko said after clocking in at 11 minutes and 30.94 seconds.
Latzko stayed with front-runners Annie Imhof (Great Mills) and Adrianna Wilder (Northern-Calvert) for much of the race and even led for an early stretch, but ended a few seconds behind Imhof (11:13.47) who placed first and Wilder (11:14.89) who finished second.
"I stuck with the people in front of me as long as I could," Latko said. "I kind of drop back when they pass me, but I didn't do that today. I didn't know if the (first-place standing) would stay. I was trying to keep it, but again they're just really good runners."
In the boys 3,200-meters, the Hawks Trent Rose placed third with a time of 9 minutes and 34.24 seconds behind Northern-Calvert's Matt Bennett and Darren Harman.
Howard's Nicholas Deamer finished 11th overall in the 4A 3,200-race, crossing in 9 minutes and 56.95 seconds.
There were no Howard County first-place winners in any of the 4x200-meter relay's, but the Lions finished fifth (1:44.04) in the girls 4A race, Reservoir (1:44.13), Mt. Hebron (1:44.42) and Hammond (1:45.68) recorded fourth, fifth and seventh place finishes, respectively, in the 3A girls, while the Gators (1:29.95), the Raiders (1:31.02), the Golden Bears (1:31.02) and Glenelg (1:33.53) placed fourth, eighth, ninth and 15th respectively, in the boys 3A 4x2.
River Hill's Sophie Caplan placed second in the girls 3A pole vault, clearing 10-feet, while Reservoir's Katie Krutz, Wilde Lake's Jane Tripp and the Hawks Ada Beams, placed fourth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
Howard's Bayli Smith and Chinenye Iloanya earned fourth and 10th place, respectively in 4A girls discus, while River Hill's Kemi Moore edged out the Gators Lola Alli for third in 3A. Mt. Hebron's Danielle Pitts came in ninth, while the Eagles Kelly Simmons finished 14th overall.
Dae'trell Gordon came in fifth place in the 3A boys shot put, while Hammond's Hamidou Mapangala finished 11th.
In the girl's triple jump, Lions senior Adeola Abdulkadir finished second behind Northwest's Taylor Wright with a distance of 38-09.75. In 3A, Jasmine McCree owned a sixth place standing, while the Wildecats Briyonna Carter (seventh), the Gators Janaya Cooper-Marshall (ninth) and Wilde Lake's Elicia Criag (10th), followed.