The pace of the indoor track season quickened for Harford high-schoolers last Friday, when John Carroll runners raced to season-best performances in an MIAA-IAAM meet on the Prince George's Sportsplex track in Landover.
Holly Cook ran 11:38.38 in the 3200-meter run. In finishing second, the John Carroll senior reprised her second-place finish to Ellie Gonzalez of Baltimore's Catholic High School in a race in December, in which Cook ran her indoor best of 5:21.9 in the 1600.
The Patriots' Ben Pickett ran a strong double, clocking 4:28.59 in the 1600 and 9:56.07 in the 3200 in the MIAA portion of the meet. He placed third and fourth, respectively, in the two races.
John Carroll received strong sprint-jump performances from Austin Markley. The versatile junior finished second in the 300 dash in 37.22 seconds, third in the pole vault at 11-6 and sixth in the long jump at 17-11.
The lone Patriot victory of the meet came in the IAAM high jump, with Rebecca Driver winning it at 5-0, two inches higher than teammate Shannon Vinton, who was third. Driver also placed sixth in the 500 in 1:26.57.
The Patriot girls placed fourth, team-wise among 14 IAAM schools. Scoring for John Carroll were Kristen Kohles, 800, 2:31.09; Alex Gromacki, 1600, 5:44.23; T'keyah Lisbon, 55 hurdles, 9.87; Heather Kirwan, vault, 7-6; Susie Snee, vault, 6-6; and the 4x800 team of Kohles, Meredith Haggerty, Caroline Haggerty and Holly Cook, which took second in 9:57.5.
The Patriot boys relied on their distance runners to finish fifth among 10 teams with 41 points. Derek Alban ran 4:29.76 in the 1600 and 2:06.9 in the 800, placing fourth and seventh. Dave Knaide ran 4:46.35 in the 1600.
John Carroll will compete in the MIAA and IAAM Championships at Prince George's Sportsplex on Feb. 3.
Harford tracksters compete at Essex
Athletes from eight of the 11 Harford County high schools are competing in the 2011-12 indoor track season. Five Harford teams were represented in the CCBC-Essex Invitational in Baltimore Dec. 16.
Harford Tech's Paige Chapman and Marietta Corbin sprinted to a one-two finish in the 55 meters, clocking 7.3 and 7.4, respectively. Aria Real of Aberdeen finished second in the 300 in 46.2, leading Tech's Charice Corbin, 47.1; Aberdeen's Kiersten Bond, 47.2; and Joppatowne's Breanna Hagwood, 47.4.
In the girls' 500, Chapman finished second in 1:33.7 with Fallston's Grace Lekites fifth in 1:36.3. Brittany Meads of Joppatowne was sixth at 1:37.4
Marissa Walker of Fallston was the runner-up behind Perryville's Jordan Dotson in the 800, 2:38 to 2:39. Samara Miller of Aberdeen took fifth in 2:47.0.
Hagwood finished second in the 55 dash in 8.74 followed by Cierra Singleton of Tech in third and Charice Corbin of Tech in fifth.
Fallston won the girls' 4x400 relay in 4:45.3, and Tech won the 4x200 in 1:28.2 to finish second in the team scoring. Aberdeen was fifth among girls' teams.
Shawnta Bradford of Aberdeen won the shot put at 33-10, with Kendall Daley of Bel Air was second at 29-9.
In the boys' competition at Essex, North Harford's Kevin Mackey won the shot put with a toss of 39-5. Harford Tech's Josh North finished first in the 800 in 2:17.0, with teammate Justin Morris second. Morris was third in the 1600 in 5:04.0 behind Rising Sun's Austin McGinley, 4:53.0.
In the 300 dash, Christopher West of Fallston finished second in 40.7 and teammate Chris Johnson, sixth in 42.0. West was also third in the 55 dash, edging Aberdeen's Chavez Cheatham, who was fourth.
Harford Tech's Isaiah Smothers placed third in the 300 dash in 41.2 and sixth in the 500 in 1:19.2.