The Oakland Mills boys team came to the Fifth Regiment Armory yesterday hoping to complete a three-peat at the Howard County Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Atholton sprinter Jared Howard, however, had an agenda of his own.
"We wanted to prove that we deserve to be considered a contender," said the junior.
With wins in the 300 and 500, and legs on the winning 4 x 200 and 4 x 400 relay teams, Howard did just that, leading the Raiders to their first-ever county indoor title.
Atholton finished with 128 points, followed by the Scorpions (106) and Glenelg (70).
On the girls side, Howard -- which finished seventh last year -- scored 74 points to capture its first county indoor title, beating out Wilde Lake (69.5), Glenelg (69 and Hammond (58) in a four-way battle that came down to the final race.
Trailing by three heading into the 4 x 400 relay, the Lions' team of Tominka Howard, Zuzette Mullings, Coleen Parker and Donna Mullings cruised to victory in a meet-record time of 4 minutes, 19.1 seconds.
"We're very excited to win it," said Howard coach Martin Goode. "[Assistant coach Tony Howard] and I joked that we knew we had such a strong team that if we lost this it was the coaches' fault."
The Lions did the bulk of their damage in the 300 -- where Suzette Mullings and Donna Mullings finished one-two -- and the 55 -- -- where Kym Morehouse and Tominka Howard finished first and third, respectively.
The Atholton boys -- which finished a distant third last year -- racked up most of their points in the short and middle-distance events.
In the 300, Jared Howard, Maurice Clifford and Cian Oatts took first, second and fourth, respectively. The Lions also took one-two in the 500, with Jared Howard winning and Edward Chang following right on his heels.
"It's always a surprise when you can beat a powerhouse like Oakland Mills," said Raiders coach Pat Saunderson, whose team defeated the Scorpions in a quad-meet earlier this season for the first time since 1984.
Jared Howard said the win was a turning point for the Raiders.
"At the beginning of the year everybody was picking Oakland Mills to win everything," said Howard, who transferred from Oakland Mills during last year's indoor season. "Today was a great day for Atholton."
Another highlight of the meet came in the girls 500, where Thema Napier of Hammond won in record time. Napier, a freshman, took more than three seconds off her qualifying time by finishing in 1:22.0 -- a full half-second better than the old record achieved in the 1989-90.
"All year she's been running just fast enough to win," said her coach Pete Hughes. "Today, she had somebody really pushing her, and that helped a lot."