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It wasn't a good day to be the favorite at the Frederick County Track and Field Championships, which were held Thursday at Linganore High's Oakdale campus.

Out of the 36 events, someone other than the top seed won 19 of them. That includes two No. 3 seeds, two No. 4's, and three No. 5's picking up championships.

The Middletown girls were the biggest upset winners, taking four events that they weren't the top seed in, helping the Knights pick up 131 points and the county title. They beat out Thomas Johnson, which scored 100 points but saw four different top seeds get upset.

On the boys side, things were also unpredictable. Thomas Johnson stormed away with the title and 141 points, outpacing Linganore (86), Walkersville (70) and Tuscarora (57) early on.

The Patriots' girls were the top pick in the 4x800 meter relay, while Middletown was seeded fifth with a qualifying time of 10 minutes, 35 seconds. The Knights finished first in 10:01.63.

Sarah Wrieden was on paper the No. 4 long jumper, but hit 16-6.75 for first. She also earned the upset blue ribbon in the triple jump with a 35-5. The Knights' 4x200 relay also upset the seeds, as the second-ranked squad took the event in a time of 1:47.84.

For the most part, Middletown prevailed when it was supposed to, and that was whenever Brittney Caudle was running. While she placed first in the 800 in 2:23.76, Thomas Johnson's Stephanie Bryan was able to pull the upset in the 1,600 with a 5:07.95. It was the only instance when a top-seeded Middletown girl was upset all day.

But Caudle got her revenge in the 3,200, pulling away from Bryan in 11:29.73 for the title.

The most shocking underdog victory of the day came in the discus, when Linganore junior Emma Mayne was announced the winner at 107 feet, 7 inches. Emily Vannoy, Thomas Johnson's elite-level thrower, had a seeding mark that was nearly 40 feet better than that. But slippery footing conditions did Vannoy in, and she scratched the first two throws by stepping out of the circle. Her third attempt used a much more conservative step, but the attempt landed out of bounds for a final scratch.

Vannoy had a chance to recover, and did, earning a fourth county title in the shot put with a mark of 44-2.

Cenarda Jackson, another top-seeded Patriot, won the 300 hurdles. Urbana's Katy Pavic may have looked like one of the bigger upsets of the day, going from fifth to first. But her seeding mark was only two inches from the top, and her final jump of 5-4 was better than any of those marks.

The Hawks also scored upsets in the 4x400 and the 200, as Charma Harris blazed to the top spot. Sarah Lueck, a top seed, won the pole vault as Urbana placed third with 96.

Host Linganore stayed in the thick of things, finishing fourth with 94 points as Chowan Brightful won the 100 hurdles.

Frederick and Tuscarora tied for fifth. Victoria Kennedy was the main highlight for Tuscarora, winning the 100, while the Cadets' Morgan Carroll defeated the competition in the 400. Frederick also placed first in the 4x100.

In a similar fashion, the Patriots' Erick Artusio was the only competitor left in the pole vault, having cleared 14-6 and securing first place. He was in the middle of attempting to clear 15-0 in a bid for the county record when the top three feet of his pole – the three feet he holds onto – snapped off.

"It's really disorientating, you're at the mercy of wherever you hit," Artusio said. "A pole vault pit is usually pretty safe. You just don't know what's going on for about a second."

Artusio has had a pole break on him one other time, in practice about a year ago. He entered the event with three different poles, but as he has started to break into the 15-foot range, he's had trouble finding a pole heavy and long enough. The one he broke was actually a loaner from Brunswick High. And going into the Class 4A North Region meet, he'll mainly be using a pole that he traded for from William Bell of Middletown.

The Thomas Johnson boys didn't pull a single upset. Instead, they did what was expected of them. Marquis Woodyard won both the 110 hurdles and the 300 hurdles, and Nick Forbes earned first in the discus.

The top-seeded Forbes had to settle for second in the shot put, though, as Brunswick's Grant Smith won with a mark of 54-4.25.

It's tough to think of Tuscarora's Dominic Clarke as not being the fastest in a given event, but he missed top seeding in the 200 by 2 hundredths of a second. It didn't matter in the end, as he bolted to a time of 21.91 for the victory.

In the 400, though, he was the top seed. Since Clarke started running the 400, he has never lost in a heads-up race. The only time someone beat him was from another heat, and that was in his first-ever quarter-mile race.

On Thursday, he was done in 49.95, which was slower than his seedtime, but fast enough for first.

"I was a little disappointed, because my 400 time wasn't fast today, but I ran my fastest 200, so I'm happy about that," Clarke said.

For his finale, he ran the anchor leg in the 4x400, overtaking the Patriots on the homestretch as the team won in 3:27.03. The Titans also got a win from Kevin Johnson in the triple jump.

Second-place Linganore earned just one first – the 4x100. Walkersville had a better showing at the top, winning the 4x800 and 4x200, while Jose Depadua won the 100.

Urbana continued its dominance in the distance running, with Nicholaus Huang winning the 800 and 1,600, while Jimmy Miller triumphed in the 3,200. Catoctin's Nick Nowaczyk bested the competition in the long jump.

Middletown's Corey Blain earned what two weeks ago would have counted as the biggest upset of the meet, winning the high jump with a mark of 6-2. The reason Blain's upset wasn't as impressive is because Walkersville's Jon Hill was missing from the event.

Hill, in street clothes and helping out his team with a stopwatch, is still recovering from a torn meniscus. He's scheduled for an MRI this week, but there is a chance that he may miss the 2A West Region meet, and in turn the state championship. However, he should be able to recover in time to join the University of Texas track team next season.