Glenelg's Creese triples up
Junior standout wins three long-distance events in Monday's Class 2A boys meet
The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association's Indoor Track and Field Championship at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex can wear any athlete out. Just saying the event's name out loud is tiring.
But for Glenelg High's Robbie Creese, Monday's Class 2A state championship was energizing. The junior distance runner actually sped up as the meet went on, capturing three different state titles and a meet record.
Creese opened the day with a standard 1600 meter run, finishing in 4 minutes, 22.21 seconds a blazing pace that can break athletes looking to compete later in the meet. It was only .25 of a second off the 2A record, set in 2009.
Recovery happened quick enough, and Creese soon found himself in the lead pack of the grueling 3200. Creese looked content to stay there until the other runners, including Tip Worob of North Caroline, Luke Arbuckle of Elkton and Stephen Keith of Walkersville, tried to alter the pace with four laps to go. Creese made his move and broke the race open.
"I was just trying to make my move with three laps left," Creese said. "It was a little early, but that was OK."
He was done in 9:56.66, eight seconds better than second place. Creese visualized his runs before Monday. He said getting two gold medals was pretty good but he was visualizing three.
Enter the 800, where for the third time of the day, Creese was not the top-seeded time. But he ran a 1:58.11, breaking the meet record by 1.29 seconds.
His 30 points helped his team take third in the team standings, as the Gladiators finished with 36 points. But Walkersville scored in each of its events, collected gold medals in three events, and then placed in another three events, racking up 62 points and its first-ever state championship.
Keith was responsible for shadowing Creese all day, taking second in the 800, sixth in the 1600 and seventh in the 3200.
He also anchored the winning 4x800 relay, teaming up with Ryan Hub, Josh Miller and Zach Zeller to finish in 8:17.98.
Walkersville junior Jose Depadua won the 300 in 36.26, was second in the 55, and was on the second-place 4x400 relay with Hub, Matt Collins and Zach Bolton. And Lucas Dayhoff took the shot put with a mark of 49 feet-7.25 inches.
With Hub taking seventh in the 500 and Tim Hampton scoring eighth in the pole vault, the Lions won by 24 points.
Glenelg only scored in the distance events, including Austin Clark earning fourth in the 3200, and Doug Goodwin finishing eighth in the 1600.
Middletown was fourth with 29.5 points with a major effort by Austin Strine. The senior won the 55 hurdles in 7.85 and cleared 6-0 for second in the high jump.
Both times he was backed up by a teammate, with Nick Aldana placing third in the hurdles and Rakim Hamilton taking seventh in the high jump.
Also for the Knights, Tyler Johnson was fifth in the shot put.
Walkersville also made a charge in the girls meet, placing sixth with 32 points. The Lions' lone champion was Elizabeth Glorioso, who cleared 9-0 in the pole vault.
Rachel McCluskey was third in the 800 and Kadain Wallace was third in the shot put, while Chelsea Young was sixth in the 55 hurdles. Walkersville also took fourth in the 4x800 relay and seventh in the 4x200.
Glenelg placed in three events, including third in the 4x400. Christina Giampalmo was fifth in the 500 and Adrienne Greenberg was sixth in the 800.
South Carroll's Cody Mezebish was second in the 300 and part of the sixth-place 4x400 team.
Middletown showed off two shot-putters, with Melissa Shirley earning second and Kaitlin Lynott taking eighth.