Old Mill coach Mike Marcus addressed senior Chris Long as "the governor" late in yesterday's Class 4A, East Region meet at the 5th Regiment Armory.
Long won the boys 3,200 run, but it was his second-place finish in the 800 run, an event that he was not TRACK AND FIELD
scheduled to run, that helped Old Mill sweep its fifth straight region title.
The Patriots boys team scored 98 points to hold off upstart North County and Baltimore county power Perry Hall (89), and Old Mill's girls team defeated the runner-up Knights, 71-66.
"The 800 was pure adrenalin," said Long, who covered the distance in 2:08.1, nine-tenths of a second behind Shawn Kelley of Perry Hall. "We looked at the scores with two events left and it was close and we knew that North County would beat us in the 1,600 relay so I was hoping to get at least fifth in the 800 to give us some cushion. The second lap I just got a rush of determination and I just rode it out.
"You never want to be the team to end the streak and last year we graduated a whole lot of seniors and they expected us to do pretty bad this year and we wanted to prove our doubters wrong.
North County's Topper Ellis won the 300 -- in 36.6 and nearly was disqualified in the 500. An illegal lane change violation was appealed and overruled, giving Ellis first-place in the event and a chance to do it again at next week's state meet.
Tony Fowlkes, a junior at North County, was runner-up in the 300 and Topper's younger brother, Kiki, took fifth in the event.
Ryan Stevens of Chesapeake won the boys 1,600 run in 4:34.9, followed by Long of Old Mill in second and Perry Hall's Joe Lielich in third. Stevens also took third behind Long and Chris Marye (Perry Hall) in the 3,200.
Annapolis's Kristen Nicolini stayed out of the 1,600 and 3,200 races to give her body some rest for next month's National Scholastic Indoor Championships in Syracuse, N.Y., but she still won the girls 800 run (2:17.5) and ran the anchor leg of the region champion 3,200 relay. Lisa Jewell, Alison Ross and Becky Morris rounded out the Panthers relay team, which finished in 9:46.6 -- almost five seconds faster than last year's record time in the state meet.
Tamiko Mack of North County won the girls 300 and 500, and teammate Kenda Johnson took third in the 300, but won the girls 55 -- in 7.4 seconds. The Knights' Jessica Pratt finished fourth in the 300 and Glen Burnie's Syreea McRae was runner-up in the girls 55 --.
Martise Moore picked up 10 points for the Patriots in winning the girls 55 hurdles and added two more points with a fifth-place effort in the 55 --.
Angie Jennings (Severna Park) was second in the girls 55 hurdles and Lisa Givens (Arundel) was third.
Old Mill junior Cathy Porter, the defending indoor state champion in the girls shot put, won the region title with a throw of 34-4. Renita Collins of Old Mill was second (32-11) and Katie Mack took third to give the Patriots a much-welcomed 1-2-3 finish.
Kristin Wimbrow and Sara Kirby claimed first and third, respectively, for the Patriots in the high jump and Michelle June of Meade was second. June later took fifth in the girls 500 run.
Richard Queen won the boys 55 -- for Old Mill and was second in the hurdles (7.8). Jon Pinkoz of North County took third in the hurdles (7.9) and the high jump (5-8).
Old Mill senior Delvell Johnson had to settle for fifth place in the --, but his leap of 6-2 in the high jump was good for first place.
Eric Voss, the county champ in the pole vault, took second behind high-flying Dave Russell of Perry Hall (14-0).
Severna Park's Erica Krajnik was third in the girls 1,600 and Megan Emery of Old Mill was fifth.
"It's going to be real close next week ," said North County coach Ed Harte. "They beat our girls by five and our guys by seven and in a bigger meet with more numbers, anything can happen."