Bowie and Paint Branch entered Tuesday night’s final race separated by one point. Each high-powered 4x400-meter relay team knew that if it could beat the other, it almost certainly would lead to a second-place finish in the team standings.
Bowie prevailed in the 4x400 meters (3 minutes 26.50 seconds) and came in second in the 4x200, finishing one-hundredth of a second behind North Point.
“[The relays] are like our bread and butter,” Bowie Coach Rich Andrulonis said. “We have so much faith in the boys, and they don’t like to lose. They’re so dedicated and focused.”
The C.H. Flowers girls (37) finished second in 4A behind dominant Woodlawn (72). Largo was fourth in both Class 1A meets; Catoctin claimed the boys’ title, and Smithsburg won among the girls.
Paint Branch’s Nicholas Spikes and his 4x400 relay teammates fell just short in the night’s final event to finish third in 4A with 42 points, but the senior started his meet with a performance to remember: He broke the 300-meter state record, finishing in 34.09. He didn’t know he had beaten the record until it was announced over the loudspeaker to applause.
“I didn’t realize it was that big until they announced it, and I was like, ‘Oh, dang, state?’ ” Spikes said. “That made me real happy. That was really cool.”
“The 300, that’s his race since he started sophomore year. … We knew he was going for the kill,” Paint Branch Coach Funmi Daramola said. “You don’t really have to worry about him [as a coach] because every time he steps on a track, he’s putting down something serious.”
The C.H. Flowers girls won the 4x200 in 1:43.37 and finished second in the 4x400.
Walter Johnson’s girls finished third in the team standings, one point behind Flowers, thanks to their middle-distance success. The Wildcats won the 4x800 and had three runners score points in the 800, with sisters Megan and Mackenzie Raue taking second and third place.
Churchill freshman Katie Morey, who established herself as one of the top distance runners in Maryland during her first high school cross-country season, swept the 1,600 (5:03.10) and 3,200 (10:49.68) to close her first indoor track season as a double state champion.
Friendly junior Tressia Davis also took home two titles, winning the Class 1A girls’ 500 in 1:19.08 and breaking the record in the 300 (39.64).
