Indoor track: Smithsburg girls dominate 1A West; North’s Stine sets county record

LANDOVER, Md. — Last winter was historic for the Smithsburg girls indoor track and field program as the Leopards capped a sensational season with their first Maryland Class 1A state title.

This winter, history has a good chance of quickly repeating itself.

“This girls team is better than last year’s girls team because it’s most of the same kids, and they’re a year older,” Smithsburg coach Adam Rudy said.

The Leopards put their speed and endurance on full display Saturday at the Class 1A West region championships at the Prince George’s Sports & Learning Complex, scoring a whopping 179.5 points to run away with the team title. They nearly tripled the point total of runner-up Liberty (61).

“Our girls, they’re champions,” Rudy said. “They show up every day and do exactly what we ask them to do. They compete hard.

“I just can’t say enough good things about how they carry themselves at practice and at meets. They have a cool confidence about them. It’s impressive.”

For Smithsburg on Saturday, Jenna Howe placed first in both the 55 (7.54) and the 300 (41.67), and she teamed with Alaina Pate, Melyssa Bard and Amelia Beck-Schmieder to win the 4x200 relay (1:56.66) and then joined Cora Gentzel, Grace Ellis and Kayla Hawbecker for a victory in the 4x400 (4:26.15).

Ellis won both the 500 (1:19.55) and 800 (2:26.65) and placed second in the 300 (43.51), while Gentzel placed first in the 1,600 (5:32.45), second in the 3,200 (12:17.53) and won the 4x800 (10:20.74) with Hawbecker, Gross and Ella Fisher.

Gross placed first in the 3,200 (11:46.37) and second in the 1,600 (5:33.00), while Emma Joyal (10.06) and Beck-Schmieder (10.08) took second and third in the 55 hurdles, Fisher placed third in the 500 (1:27.12), Hawbecker finished third in the 800 (2:28.18) and Alexandria Spithaler was third in the pole vault (8-5).

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The top three finishers in each event Saturday automatically qualified for the state championships Feb. 20-21 at the Prince George’s Sports & Learning Complex. Others also advanced based on performance.

“Today, this was as good of a lineup as we could put down,” Rudy said. “We did everything we could to set ourselves up for states.”

Of course, another title is far from guaranteed.

“Class 1A is better this year than it was last year,” Rudy said. “There are a couple teams that have come down from 2A that are really good. Harford Tech is a really good program, Largo has improved this year, and there’s a girl from Friendly that is phenomenal. It’s going to be a real challenge for us, but we did everything we needed to do today to get in the right spot.

“I like our chances if we just come and do what we’ve done all season. Usually our girls run well when it matters. We’ll see. It should be fun.”

North’s Lauren Stine sets county record

The top Washington County performance Saturday was turned in by North Hagerstown junior Lauren Stine, who blew away the field in the girls 3,200 in Class 3A West, winning by nearly a minute in 10:58.60.

She became the first girl in county history to break 11:00 in the event indoors. The previous indoor county record was 11:02.67, set by Boonsboro’s Haley Wright in 2015.

“That was definitely my goal going into it, but realistically, I didn’t think I was going to hit it,” said Stine, whose previous indoor best was 11:17.24. “I was more shooting for sub-11:10.”

Impressively, Stine achieved her goal without any competition to push her, although lapping the other runners in the race was an incentive.

“Honestly, I feel like I race better when I’m by myself because there’s less stress on me, but it’s definitely hard pushing,” she said. “But with the bodies that were around me, that definitely made it easier, having runners to pass.”

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Stine's next goal is the 3A state championship. Last winter, she placed second in the 3,200 indoors at states, before winning the state title in the event outdoors last spring in 10:54.42, her overall personal record.

“I got second last year, so my goal is definitely not to repeat history on that one,” Stine said. “And getting third in cross country (last fall) gives me extra motivation going into it. It’ll be difficult, but I’m excited.”

Blazers on the rise

Washington County’s other region titles Saturday were captured by Clear Spring, a program clearly on the rise.

The Blazers’ 1A West champions included Cheyenne Naile in the girls 55 hurdles (9.95), Kailyn McCauley in the girls shot put (33-3) and Jacob Faith in the boys high jump (5-10).

Also for Clear Spring, Tyce McConnaughey placed second in the boys 55 dash (6.76) in a photo finish, crossing the line one-hundredth of a second after Catoctin’s Shaymus Stull (6.75).

The Blazers also got a second-place finish from Madi Dyer, Dana Hammond, Brielle Enow and Grace Shoemaker in the girls 4x200 (1:56.78) and a third-place performance by Nick Cullember in the boys shot put (42-6).

Clear Spring finished third in the girls team standings and fifth in the boys.

“Last year, we kind of set the foundation and culture,” said Blazers second-year coach Kevin Thacker. “And it’s just kind of like a business. If you have a good product, it attracts more customers. And the kids do a good job recruiting their friends.

“This was my first season with an offseason. We were able to work not only in-season but through the summer, fall and such. And we have so many kids. The big success is the numbers. We have about 75 kids this year. Last year, we had 59. Iron sharpens iron, and the kids have really been pushing each other all year.”

Naile’s surprise victory in the girls 55 hurdles was proof of that.

She entered Saturday’s meet with a personal record of 10.40 in the event, and she had never finished ahead of any of the three Smithsburg girls in the race.

In less than 10 seconds, all of that changed.

“My PR was 10.40, and I was hoping to get 10.20, which I did in prelims, but I had no idea this would happen,” Naile said. “It’s amazing. It feels great to come out on top, and I beat the school record. It’s a great day.”

How does she explain it?

“I don’t know,” she said. “It’s just hard work, showing up to practice every night and working my butt off.”

Other standouts

Several other Washington County athletes achieved top-three finishes Saturday.

• In Class 3A West:

For South Hagerstown, Riley Troxell placed second in the girls pole vault (10-5), while Jack Rhodes (41-11) and Dayvion Martin (40-7) took second and third in the boys shot put, and Ana Small-Simmons finished third in the girls shot put (30-1 1/2).

For the North Hagerstown boys, Ryder Johnston placed second in the 55 hurdles (8.02), Kalel Salifou was second in the high jump (5-10), Odin Desir took third in the 55 (6.67), Walker Mason finished third in the 3,200 (9:58.48), and Donovan Baldwin, Dishaan Patel, Adam Mustafa and Sully McGreevy placed third in the 4x800 (8:31.97).

Anna Chamberlin finished third in the high jump (4-10) for the North girls, and she teamed with Rian Johnson, Ella Hajel and Jayla Kaplan to place second in the 4x800  (10:11.56).

• In Class 1A West:

The Smithsburg boys got second-place finishes from Ethan Hurd in both the 300 (38.09) and 500 (1:14.05), Xavier Douge in the 55 hurdles (8.67), Michael Wynkoop in the 3,200 (10:18.50) and Lucas Reyes, Camilo Mellott, Tyler Younker and Wynkoop in the 4x800 (9:06.23).

Waylon Leach placed second in the boys shot put (45-11) for Hancock.

The Boonsboro girls got third-place finishes from Kamryn Dillow in the 300 (44.78), Sidney Turner in the shot put (30-2) and Ronda Shalaby, Natalie Leggett Debaugh, Sophie Haupt and Dillow in the 4x400 (4:55.66).

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Washington County athletes shine at region indoor track championships