Making its region debut at yesterday's Class 4A, Central Region Championships, Mervo showed no signs of jitters.
The Mustangs, competing in their first region meet since joining the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association three years ago, emerged as runner-up in the boys team competition with 65 points.
Eleanor Roosevelt of Prince George's County swept both team titles, racking up 145 points on the girls side and 100 on the boys.
Lake Clifton and Patterson also fielded teams yesterday at the Fifth Regiment Armory, but neither made the top 10.
"We really didn't hold out a lot of hope to win the region because I thought Roosevelt was really much stronger than we were, but we had an outside shot at it," said Mervo coach Freddie Hendricks, whose team won the boys team title at last week's inaugural Baltimore City Track and Field Championships.
"We were hoping to just show because these [Prince George's County] teams have all had strong teams in the past and I wasn't exactly sure what they had. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, I just put together the best lineup I could."
Senior Royston Lyttle and junior James Carter picked up 18 points for the Mustangs with a 1-2 finish in the 300-meter --.
Lyttle, who qualified for states in the 55 --, finishing fifth behind Patterson's third-place Melvin Braxton, ran the anchor leg of Mervo's region champion 800 relay team.
Rounding out that winning foursome were James Carter, Kekoe Hayes and Jason Panniell.
Carter and Panniell reversed roles and finished first and third, respectively, in the boys 55 hurdles.
Mervo junior Mike Jones, 6-foot-4 and 340 pounds, had no problem qualifying for the state meet as he finished third in the shot put (44-2 1/4 ).
Antwon Collins, Tyree Byron, Marlon Harty and Zarkee Hendricks took fourth place for the Mustangs in the 3,200 relay, finishing 33 seconds slower than winning Roosevelt (8:56.0).
Mervo's 11-member girls team saw Samantha Johnson, Arumah Johnson, Brandy Vinson and Christine Hamilton advance to Wednesday's Class 4A state meet by finishing fifth in the 800 relay.