Clarksburg boys capture school's first state team title
County brings home 27 individual and relay champions from state track
Saturday was a banner day for the Clarksburg High School boys track and field team at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
The school, which opened its doors to students in 2006, earned its first ever Maryland state championship flag. The Coyotes boarded the bus for home as Class 2A outdoor track state titlists, 13 points ahead of second-place finisher North Point.
Senior Avery Graham led the way with wins in all four events he entered, the most one athlete is allowed by the state in a single meet. Graham won championships in the 4x200-meter relay (1 minute, 28.97 seconds), 200 dash (21.99), 100 dash (11.08) and 4x100 relay (42.49).
"We got second last year [in indoor track]," said Graham, who signed to play football at the University of Maryland. "I just came out and ran my races, not worrying about anybody else."
Graham was instrumental in engineering the push, collecting 40 of Clarksburg's 76 team points.
The Coyotes also had a win from Marcus Kinney in the discus (140 feet, 1 inch) and went one-two in the shot put. Christian Smith was first with a heave of 50-1, while Rob Thompson's toss of 49-0.75 was good for second.
A fitting end
For the past year, Gaithersburg's Sean Stanley and Quince Orchard's Marcus Brown have set the gold standard for Maryland high school throwers by finishing first or second in every major discus and shot put event. This weekend was no exception, as the duo capped their careers in appropriate fashion.
Stanley, a Penn State University football signee, captured his fifth shot put state title with a throw of 60-04.75. Brown finished runner up (56-07.5).
In the discus circle it was Brown, a University of Maryland-Eastern Shore signee, who emerged victorious with personal record of 171-06 on his first attempt. Stanley's runner-up throw was 169-08.
"[It's my most memorable win] because of the way I ended my senior year," said Brown, who swept both events at counties and regionals. "I had a bad [shot put] performance. Not to say 56 feet is bad, but compared to Sean, that's pretty awful. So one of the biggest things was to get my head focused and warm up correctly. My best throws are when I'm most nervous."
The Gaithersburg boys team finished second (51 points) to Thomas Johnson (60) in Class 4A. Owen Cain won the triple jump (47-05.75)
Haughty Haughton
Blair senior Jonathan Haughton took the 4A 200 title with relative ease, winning by nearly a full second (21.87). He also ran the anchor leg of Blair's winning 4x100 (43.30) and 4x200 (1:28.32) relays. In the 4x200, Haughton kicked tremendously to come from nearly 50 meters behind to steal the title.
Ekponé 1 for 3
Northwest sophomore Olivia Ekponé successfully defended her 400-meter dash state title, but came up just short in the 100 and 200 to her closest rival, Aurieyall Scott of Eleanor Roosevelt.
"I am very satisfied in what I did today," said Ekponé, whose focus now turns to qualifying for the World Youth Championships in Italy. "It's kind of nice having [Scott] that close because you produce faster times normally than you would running by yourself. It's nice to have competition."