Crofton coach Stacy Severtson said her school and program would continue to host the Anne Arundel County Outdoor Track and Field championships for as long as the powers that be want, and for good reason.
The Cardinals have hosted the meet two straight spring seasons and come away with the boys team title both times.
Sophomore Christian Doss led the way as Crofton captured its second straight county championship by scoring 143 points, 57 better than runner-up Arundel (86). Doss won the 110- and 300-meter hurdles and also ran legs on the victorious 4×200 and 4×400 relays for the Cardinals.
Bryan Schaeffer won the individual 400 and ran the anchor leg of the 4×400 relay, while Adetoye Onyekaba claimed the shot put crown for Crofton.
“Our upperclassmen have been looking forward to hosting counties all season and have been making sure the underclassmen understand that this is where we need to shine,” said Severtson, who has 35 seniors on the squad. “Our boys did an amazing job and met our expectations. That’s what we talked about at the beginning of the season: to have the county championships at home and come away with the win.”
Doss won the 110 hurdles with a time of 14.73 seconds and the 300 in 38.55. His teammate, senior Chikesandu Ogwu, was second in the 100 and third in the 300.
“Christian is one of our leaders, for sure. He’s very versatile so we just have to put him in the right spot at the right time,” Severtson said. “. “]Those two have been pushing each other super-hard this season and going back-and-forth. It’s been fun to watch the mentorship between the two of them this season.”
Sophomores Dana Doubek and Nkechi Streete set the pace as Broadneck’s girls repeated as outdoor county champions. Doubek won the pole vault and the high jump, while Streete won the triple jump and long jump as Broadneck amassed 142 points — 12 better than runner-up Crofton, the indoor county champ.
Streete also finished third in the high jump and ran a leg on the Bruins’ second place 4×200 relay, while freshman Ashtyn Coates won the 200 dash and was also part of the 4×200 relay.
“Our girls really wanted this. Crofton kicked out butt at the indoor county championship and the girls were in the weight room the very next day. They’ve been grinding every day ever since,” Broadneck coach Josh Webster said. “We have a group of young girls that are really leading this team. We’ve been very blessed to have a very focused and fantastic core group of young athletes that are guided by a core group of outstanding senior leaders.”
Doubek, a former figure skater, won the pole vault at a height of 11 feet, 6 inches, then topped the high jump at 5 feet based on number of misses. “Dana is really talented and is going to be an absolute star,” Webster said.
Streete competed in five events and excelled in each, winning the triple jump with a personal-best distance of 37-7 and the long jump with a 17-10 ¼. She also helped Broadnecks’s 4×100 and 4×400 relays set school records.
Coates is the team’s best sprinter and already holds six school records. The Bruins got runner-up results from Amanda Protzman in the discus and Breanna Brown in the shot put.
“Our field events really came up big over the past two days,” Webster said.
Southern distance standout Eric Penkala secured county championships in the 3,200 and 1,600, winning the latter by more than seven seconds. He was disappointed to not have career-long rival Tsedeke Jakovics of Old Mill to compete against in the mile.
“It was kind of lonely out on the track. There was nobody around,” said Penkala, who is planning to focus on the 1,500 at the University of Maryland. He intends to compete in five events at the regional and Class 2A state meets.
Jakovics, the multi-time Capital Gazette Athlete of the Year who has signed with Princeton, skipped the individual 2 mile as well in hopes of breaking 1:50 in the 800. Jakovics came up just short, winning with a time of 1:51.62 — more than five seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
“The plan was to conserve energy to try to go sub-1:50 in the 800. It didn’t work out, but it’s really hard to do something like that solo,” said Jakovics, who established his personal-best mark of 1:49.72 in the 800 at the New Balance Nationals against top competition and on a banked track.
Jakovics ran a 1:52 anchor leg as Old Mill won the 4×800 relay with a school-record time of 7:48.92. Christian Rozanski, Chase Johnson and Colin Prato were the other members of that relay, which now owns the top time in Maryland this season.
Arundel had a double winner on the boys side in Edward Smith II, who announced himself as the county’s top sprinter by garnering the gold medal in the 100 and 200.
On the girls’ side, Severna Park distance runner Grace Redmond captured county championships in the mile and 2-mile runs. Redmond won the 3,200 with a PR of 11:03.62.
Smith set a personal-best time of 21.76 seconds in the 200.
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Boys team scores
1, Crofton 143 points; 2, Arundel 86; 3, Severna Park 80; 4, Broadneck 67 ½; 5, Meade 66
Boys individual results
4×800 relay — 1, Old Mill (C. Rozanski, C. Johnson, C. Prato, T. Jakovics), 7:48.92; 2, Severna Park, 7:59.77; 3, Southern-AA, 7:59.77
4×400 — 1, Crofton (G. Brown, C. Ogwu, C. Doss, B. Schaeffer), 3:21.45; 2, Chesapeake, 3:25.76; 3, Northeast, 3:26.62
4×200 relay — 1, Crofton (C. Doss, G. Brown, J. Treleaven, K. Davis), 1:28.30; 2, Annapolis, 1:28.92; 3, Arundel, 1:29.03
4×100 — 1, Chesapeake (P. Michael, A. Diffendall, C. Ritter, C. Seabrease), 42.81; 2, Broadneck, 43.05; 3, Annapolis, 43.10
3,200-meter run — 1, Eric Penkala (SO), 9:33.26; 2, Ben Ghahhari (SP), 9:34.69; 3, Cole Cosgrove (NC), 9:35.23
1,600-meter run — 1, Eric Penkala (SO), 4:16.62; 2, Ben Ghahhari (SP), 4:23
.81; 3, Cole Cosgrove (NC), 4:24.24
800-meter run — 1, Tsedeke Jakovics (OM), 1:51.62; 2, Samuel Blake (SP), 1:56.76; 3, Eric Penkala (SO), 1:56.93
100-meter hurdles — 1, Christian Doss (CR), 14.73; 2, Chikesandu Ogwu (CR), 15.05; 3, Chege Kaba (AR), 15.23
300-meter hurdles — 1, Christian Doss (CR), 38.55; 2, Chege Kaba (AR), 38.96; 3, Chikesandu Ogwu (CR), 40.05
100-meter dash — 1, Edward Smith II (AR), 10.95; 2 Allan Aminu (AR), 10.99; 3, Kaleb McGhee-Rivero (BN), 11.01
200-meter dash — 1, Edward Smith (AR), 21.76; 2, Connor Seabrease (CH), 21.90; 3, Matthew Allen (BN), 22.48
400-meter dash — 1, Bryan Schaeffer (CR), 49.74; 2, Elijah Hicks (ANN), 50.04; 3, Samuel Blake (SP), 50.23
Long jump — 1, Wesley Meran-Henson (ME), 22-04 ¾; 2, Kofi Duro (AR), 22-04 ¼; 3, Adam Diffendall (CH), 21-09 ½
High jump — 1, Chege Kaba (AR), 6-5; 2, Matthew Williams (SP), 6-2; 3, Bryson Mims (SO), 6-0
Triple jump — 1, Kofi Duro (AR), 44-06; 2, Wesley Meran-Henson (ME), 44-05 ½; 3, Jonathan Will (OM), 43-11 ¾
Shot put — 1, Adetoye, Onyekaba (CR), 51-0 ½; 2, Joshua Rowe (ME), 47-9 ¼; 2, Christian Schlauch (BN), 43-10 ¼
Discus — 1, Christian Schlauch, 145-03; 2, Joshua Rowe (ME), 141-01; 3, Anthony Mason (CR), 1
38-08
Pole vault — 1, Thomas Polk (CR), 14-0; 2, Tristan Sudama (OM), 13-6; 3, Davin Inglis (CH), 12-6
Girls team scores
1, Broadneck 142 points; 2, Crofton 130; 3, Severna Park 95; 4, Southern-AA 65; 5, North County 57
Girls individual results
4×800 relay — 1, Severna Park (S. Pegues, H. Wallace, N. Bowman, A. Zimmerman), 9:35.30; 2, Southern, 9:44.35; 3, Crofton, 9:56.47
4×400 — 1, Southern (K. DiPietro, M. Voorhees, M. Shaw, R. Burgee), 3:55.33; 2, Old Mill, 4:01.80; 3, Broadneck, 4:03.26
4×200 relay — 1, Crofton (O Boehmer, A. Stephens, M. Culbreath, L. Carpenter), 1:40.19; 2, Broadneck, 1:42.16; 3, Meade, 1:42.53
4×100 — 1, North County (R. Kamanda, A. Easley, B. Easley, A. Hurley), 48.13; 2, Crofton, 48.15; 3, Arundel, 48.22
3,200-meter run — 1, Grace Redmond (SP), 11:03.62; 2, Lexi Fitzsimmons (SP), 11:22.35; 3, Jocelyn DiAngelo (SP), 11:35.73
1,600-meter run — 1, Grace Redmond (SP), 5:04.27; 2, Siena Pegues (SP), 5:11.09; 3, Cora Morrison (AR), 5:14.11
800-meter run — 1, Ava Zimmerman (SP), 2:15.48; 2, Rebecca Burgee (SO), 2:15.49; 3, Siena Pegues (SP), 2:20.01
100-meter hurdles — 1, Jaslyn Bangoura (ME), 15.37; 2, Xianna Day (ME), 15.40; 3, Marley Shaw (SO), 15.99
300-meter hurdles — 1, Marley Shaw (SO), 46.38; 2, Amaya Bristol (CR), 47.47; 3, Jaslyn Bangoura (ME), 47.83
100-meter dash — 1, Brianna Easley (NC), 12.21; 2, Arianna Easley (NC), 12.23; 3, Ce’Anna Adkins (OM), 12.28
200-meter dash — 1, Ashtyn Coates (BN), 24.81; 2, Brianna Easley (NC), 24.87; 3, Laila Carpenter (CR), 25.27
400-meter dash — 1, Rebecca Burgee (SO), 56.40; 2, Laila Carpenter (CR), 56.54; 3, Ava Zimmerman (SP), 57.46
Pole vault — 1, Dana Doubek (BN), 11-6; 2, Alexa Holt (SP), 11-0; 3, Charlotte DeForest (CR), 10-6
Discus — 1, Claire Muteteke (CH), 109-08; 2, Amanda Protzman (BN), 107-11; 3, Abigail Shown (BN), 105-03
Shot put — 1, Claire Muteteke (CH), 34-7 ¼; 2, Breanna Brown (BN), 34-5 ¾; 3, Amaya Michel (NC), 32-7 ¾
Triple jump — 1, Nkechi Streete (BN), 37-07; 2, Charlotte DeForest (CR), 37-01 ½; 3, Remuna Kamanda (NC), 35-07 ¾
High jump — 1, Dana Doubek (BN), 5-0; 2, Maya Voorhees (SO), 5-0; 3, Nkechi Streete (BN), 4-10
Long jump — 1, Nkechi Streete (BN), 17-10 ¼; 2, Olivia Boehmer (CR), 17-06 ½; 3, Charlotte DeForest (CR), 17-5