Midway through the final afternoon of the USA Track and Field Youth National championships, Bullseye Running coaches Tyler Wade and Chris Brewington were looking at the scores, calculating how close their boys were from capturing first-place in the 15-16 division. When they realized they were mathematically destined to clinch a National Championship, the celebrations began.
"I was stoked for them," said Wade, whose team notched 48 points in the meet, edging out second-place finishers, 08-Unattached who scored 45. "The kids were getting closer and were becoming good friends and that makes me proud already and then the fact that they were able to accomplish this together – they were stoked. Once we kind of figured out that we won they were just ecstatic. It was a pretty cool moment. I know myself, coach (Phil) Lang, coach Brewington, coach (Dwayne) Shoemaker and (coach Ben Keooch) we were all pretty excited for the kids, because they had a good time and that's the biggest goal is just to enjoy ourselves out there. They definitely did and they had a good meet. It was a good time."
Over 28 different states were represented at the meet that took place on the campus of Millersville University, located in Millersville, Pa. More than 50 teams scored at least a point with several more who participated.
Bullseye Running fielded several teams at the meet, which ran from June 28 to July 3, ranging from various age groups from 8-and-under to 17-18 division. But it was the Striders 15-16 boys team, which touted standouts from several Howard County schools such as, Howard, Oakland Mills, Wilde Lake, Centennial and Reservoir, while including athletes from Loyola and McDonogh that was their strongest unit.
"It's a national championship, so it's very difficult," Wade said. "Teams from Florida, Georgia, Texas, California – all the heavy hitters when it comes to track and field… We were able to score in a lot of different events. We were able to get distance points, some sprint points and some relay points and that's what kind of put us over the top. We're able to score in both faces, which gave us the advantage."
The Striders did exceptionally well in both the 4x800- and 4x100-meter relays, capturing third-place standings in both events.
The 4x8 team consisting of, Gregory Costello (Centennial), Charlie Burgess (McDonogh), Kai Muniz (Reservoir) and Camden Gilmore (Loyola/Blakefield) crossed with a time of 8 minutes, 44.51 seconds, finishing within 27 seconds of first place finishers, Juniata Valley Striders.
In the 4x1 race, Andre Turay (Oakland Mills), Cameron Vereen (Oakland Mills), Leroy Kamau (Reservoir) and Glenn Maroya (Howard) finished in 45.15 seconds, which bested fourth-place finishers, First State Destroyers, by .62 seconds.
"We had kids from three different schools there so we had to spend time at practice working on hand-offs and things like that," Wade explained. "We practice three days a week at Oakland Mills and the past couple weeks we spent a lot of time working on hand-offs, trying to get that chemistry up. The kids bonded pretty much right away, so it made things a little bit easier going into that meet. We have four fast kids, we just needed to make sure we got the hand-offs down."
Turay and Vereen – both underclassmen for the Scorpions – had a terrific tournament, as each earned top standings in their respective events. Turay finished second in the 400-meter hurdles and third in the 110-hurdles, while also anchoring the Striders 4x100-meter relay team. Vereen placed third in the 100-meter dash, fifth in the 200-meters and also was apart of the 4x100-relay team.
Costello also had a solid day, coming away with a third-place standing in the 1,500-meter race, while also helping the Striders 4x800-meter relay team to a third place outing.
Although the Howard County Striders have been together for some time, the 15-16 boys group have only competed together for the past two years, but they quickly built camaraderie throughout the year, which has helped them excel in both the 4x100- and 4x800-relay races.
"We gave the kids about a week off right after states, but then we started meeting up every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at Oakland Mills, nothing crazy, only about an hour, hour and a half practices," Wade said. "We always tell the kids that summer track is just kind of an opportunity to get a couple more meets in. It's not as much pressure as the high school season. It's just kid of, let's have some fun, get to train with other kids around the county, get a chance to travel out of state and compete against real strong competition around the country. We don't talk to the kids a whole lot during the season, because we want them to focus on their high school season. We're just focused on what we can do during the summer and just kind of have some fun with it. I think that's what makes us a little different than other summer programs around the area."
Other scores:
The 17-18 girls team finished 30th with nine points, and the 4x400-meter relay team placed fifth with a time of 4:13.86.
In the 15-16 girls division, Oluwaseun Sule and Joy Williams finished 10th and 17th, respectively, in the long jump. Sule jumped 16 feet, 3 inches, while Williams jumped 14 feet, 5.25 inches.
The 13-14 girls finished 29th with nine points. Faith Meininger finished fifth in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:55.25, sixth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:54.06 and seventh in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:30.15.
The 13-14 boys finished 32nd with six points. The 4x800-meter relay team placed third overall and finished with a time of 9:35.41. Andre Richmond II placed fifth in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 18.50 seconds.
The 9-10 girls finished 26th. Mary Gorsky won the 1,500-meter run, while Kiley Mann finished second. Avery Miller placed sixth in the long jump.
The 9-10 boys finished 14th with 11 points. The 4x400-meter relay team finished fifth with a time of 5:09.73. Gregory Whitfield II finished in fourth in the high jump and sixth in the 400-meter dash.
The 8-U boys finished 13th with 12 points. Liam Hamilton won the long jump with a distance of 12 feet, 2.25 inches, while Connor Fries finished seventh with a distance of 10 feet, 6.50 inches.
For full results go to usatf.org