Middletown finished with 127.5 points for the title, while the host Thomas Johnson girls team won with 167 points.
Linganore’s Chowan Brightful didn’t even get a chance to scratch out of the high jump. After clearing a height of 5-6, she went straight over to the 100-meter hurdles, which she won with a personal record of 15.58 seconds.
‘‘The hurdles are at the same time,” Brightful said. ‘‘I wanted to jump, but my coach told me I couldn’t. I didn’t jump at all. But it’s what we do.”
The jump of 5-6 tied her personal record. Her marks have stayed steady this year, after battles with her hamstring hurt efforts in her sophomore year. But the junior has three county titles in the high jump and 100 hurdles.
Brightful noted that with the hurdles and the high jump, she has two events that are heavily focused on a skilled form. She tends to make her practices even harder by taking on the triple jump and the 4x400.
‘‘It’s a little hectic, a little crazy. But I’m used to it,” Brightful said.
Hill’s upward mobility in the high jump has spiked up since winning the state title in the indoor meet. A junior, he’s now consistently clearing 6-8, and hit 6-10 at the Monocacy Valley Athletic League’s Piedmont Conference Championship the week before.
‘‘Now, I maintain my speed coming in,” Hill said. ‘‘Before, in indoor, I would start fast, slow down, and then speed back up. Now, I maintain speed, and that just helps me with the drive.”
Hill was also second in the triple jump, trailing Thomas Johnson’s Brock Chapman’s 45-6 by two inches.
Thomas Johnson was dominant in the girls meet, winning nine events. In what has almost become an automatic 20 points, Emily Vannoy won the shot put in 47-5.5 and the discus in 126-3. Another double-winner for the Patriots was Stephanie Bryan, taking the 1,600 and 3,200.
But their biggest impact athlete of the meet was Najjiyya Franklin-Huff, who helped turn the meet into the Patriots’ senior night.
She set the county record in the 400 at 56.75, then won the 200 in 25.52 and the long jump at 17-8.5. The 400 is fast becoming her calling card event, as she’s now gunning to break 56 seconds.
‘‘I’ve run it every meet we’ve had this year, and every time I’ve gotten a little better, give or take,” Franklin-Huff said. ‘‘I like to think that all of my events have been pretty well. I’m ending my senior year well, and I’m happy about that. I’ve been doing well in the long jump, too.”
Franklin-Huff has always focused in on those three events, while using her third event as a wildcard for the team. She’s run the 100 and 4x400 twice, and has one run of the 4x100.
But without her in the 4x100, the Patriots are still dangerous. Megan Cahill, Jasmine Ford, Cenarda Jackson and Jasmine Thomas won in 50.21. Jackson also won the 300 hurdles.
Middletown finished second in the girls meet with 102.5 points, winning the 4x200, 4x400 and 4x800.
Also for the Knights, Brittney Caudle won the 800, and Sarah Wreiden cleared 35-4.5 on her second pass to win the triple jump.
Urbana was third with 92.5 points, led by Sarah Lueck winning the pole vault.
Victoria Kennedy’s win in the 100 helped Tuscarora finish fourth with 76 points.
In the boys competition, Middletown attacked every event like a point piñata. They only had two individual winners —Ty Shaffer in the 300 hurdles and the 4x100 relay team—but finished 28.5 points ahead of Thomas Johnson.
The Patriots scored more first-place finishes, including Nick Forbes taking the discus and shot put. Chris Johnson also won the 110 hurdles.
The only other team to win four events was Urbana, which finished fifth with 69 points.
Dustin Fishman won the pole vault, and the Hawks restored their dominance of the distance events, sweeping the 800, 1,600 and 3,200.
Senior Dylan Bernard focused in on the 3,200, running a 9:42.16 time. Nick Huang, a junior, hit his goals in winning the 800 in 1:58.05 and the 1,600 in 4:23.83.
Huang is now the latest in a long line of highly-proficient Urbana distance runners.
‘‘All these great guys running ahead of me, they were something I’d work for. They were my model, my idols. I wanted to be at their level someday, maybe [by] my senior year,” he said.
After taking second in the indoor season’s Class 3A 1,600, Huang realized that he didn’t have to wait until his senior year.
‘‘I talked to my coaches, and they put me on a special training program. I told them that I wanted to get better,” Huang said.
A key detail has been the return of head coach Dave Britton, who oversaw the development of Kurt Kuehn, Nick Stine, and the first two years for Bernard.
Linganore, which has challenged Urbana’s distance status, still has the depth factor, winning the 4x800 with Ricky Conner, Tim Jones, David Noah and Robert Perrotta.
Patrick Balderson also won the 100, helping the Lancers take fourth with 88 points.
Walkersville was third with 93 points. Along with Hill’s efforts, the Lions won the 4x200.
Tuscarora finished with 48.50 points and sixth place, with a solid showing by Dominic Clarke, who was recently nomiated as a semifinalist to participate in the 2009 U.S. Army All-American Bowl football game in San Antonio.
Clarke won the 200 and 400, and was on the winning 4x400 team with Fabian Gonzalez, Madison Sowell and Charlie Thelemann.
