Kristen Nicolini and Alison Ross established themselves as the county's finest female distance runners during the past cross country season.
Yesterday, the Annapolis duo proved they are equally adept indoors as they joined forces with teammates Becky Morris, Christine Mowry and Lisa Jewell and set two meet records at the Anne Arundel County Relay Championships at the Fifth Regiment Armory.
Nicolini, a senior, and Ross, only a sophomore, teamed with Morris and Mowry to win the 4 x 1,600 relay in a record time of 22 minutes, 51.4 seconds. Severna Park, the runner-up, crossed the line in 24:04.1
Nicolini and Ross picked up their second gold medals with Morris and Jewell in winning the sprint medley relay. The foursome won that race, which includes legs of 1,200, 400, 800 and 1,600 meters, in a meet record time of 13:08.1. Severna Park finished second, 1:12 behind.
North County's boys team claimed gold medals in the 800 relay, 1,600 relay, sprint medley relay and the descendo (800, 600, 400 200).
A common denominator in all four wins for the Knights was senior Topper Ellis. Tony Fowlkes, Chris Connolly, Chad Farley and Kiki Ellis, Topper's younger brother, were in on three of the Knights' victories.
"We finally have some depth which we have never had before," said North County coach Ed Harte. "We're still testing things out, but we have 70 kids and we're a team now."
Old Mill's girls team won two relay races -- the 800 and shuttle sprint -- with the help of Erica Davis, Jenny Porter, Jen Mazzola, Martise Moore, Jessica Miles and Dorian Lee.
Old Mill dominated four of the five field events. Delvell Johnson took the boys high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 4 inches. The Patriots' Kristin Wimbrow won the girls high jump.
Old Mill finished 1-2-3 in the girls shot put with Cathy Porter taking first with a throw of 33-11, followed by Katie Mack (32-8 1/2 ) and Renita Collins (31-11 1/2 ).
Eric Voss of Old Mill won the pole vault with a leap of 11-6. Jason Berger of South River, who was second, reached the same height, but with more misses.
North County's Rob Fuller stopped Old Mill from sweeping the field events as he took the gold in the shot put with a toss of 47-3.
The Knights' girls team won the 1,600 relay (4:18.7) and the sprint medley relay (4:37.3). Emerging with two gold medals for North County were Kenda Johnson, Tamiko Mack and Jessica Pratt.
Dave Schilling Mike Lair, Jon Carnes and Tim Dugan combined to win the 3,200 relay for Broadneck.