Baltimore City boys and girls champions Mervo and Western ruled at last night's Class 4A-3A Central Region indoor track meet at the 5th Regiment Armory.
Six Anne Arundel County schools joined 10 Baltimore City schools, Carroll County's Westminster and C. Milton Wright of Harford County in the 18-team meet, with the top four in each individual event qualifying for Monday's state championships in Prince George's County.
The No. 4-ranked Mervo boys (89 points) were led by two gold medals (300 and 500) from sprinter Jabari Bush and wins in the 1,600 and 800 relays to pull away from No. 5 Westminster (75) and win the meet. No. 9 Chesapeake-Anne Arundel was third with 65.5 points.
Sprinter Mariama Gondo won two events (55 and 300) and was third in another (500) to lead the No. 5 Western girls (86 points) to a runaway victory over No. 8 Broadneck and third-ranked Westminster, who tied for second with 68 points apiece.
"We were not surprised to win, but Mariama was somewhat of a surprise winning two events in her first season indoors," said Western coach Jerry Molyneaux.
Gondo had won the city 55 title, but not the 300.
The Western girls started pulling away from the field after four events, and after eight, they held a commanding 66-35 lead over Westminster.
Western clinched its victory on Alicia Williams' fourth-place finish in the 800.
Meanwhile, Bush's time of 37 seconds in the 300 was the fastest in the state during this indoor season. Bush, an honor roll student at Mervo, also won the 300 and 500 in this year's Baltimore City championships after not placing in the region last year.
"Jabari lost his mom last year during the city meet and has worked very hard since to make himself the best in those events this year," said Mervo coach Freddie Hendricks. "He's a super kid."
Patrick Bailey of C. Milton Wright won the 3,200 by seven seconds over Westminster's Kevin Pool with a time of 9:54.
Chesapeake-AA's individual boy winners were high jumper Matt Waranius and sprinter Shawn Freshwater in the 55 dash.
Jeremy Moore of Broadneck won his third straight region indoor title in the shot put with a toss of 51 feet, 3 1/4 inches. Mervo's Kelly Jackson and Chesapeake-AA's Jon Philip were 4 feet behind.