It was another week of firsts for the River Hill girls.

Just days after capturing the school's first girls outdoor track county championship, the Hawks strung together 127 points at the Class 2A South Region meet to once again emerge victorious. The championship, which came by six points over North Point, was another first for a program that just last year didn't qualify a single girl for states.

"I really don't know how to explain it, because you can't anticipate the kind of improvement from year to year that we've had," River Hill coach Earl Lauer said. "It's a pretty amazing turnaround and the great thing is that it was a total team effort. We scored in 14 of the 18 events and we ended up needing to in order to win."

Their were no other county team winners from their respective regional meets, but the Mt. Hebron boys did take second in 2A South, and the Atholton boys and Howard girls each took third in 3A East.

For complete results see High School Wrap-up. Results from 1A South were not available at press time. The state track meet will be Thursday through Saturday, May 22-24 at Morgan State University, in Baltimore. Go to www.mpssaa.org for details.

2A South

River Hill once again got exceptionally strong meets from its distance duo of Anna Demaree and Katie Harman. Demaree brought home titles in the 800 and 1,600, had a hand in the Hawks' winning 4x800 relay squad, while also finishing second to Harman in the 3,200. Harman, meanwhile, was right behind Demaree in the 800 and 1,600, won the 3,200 in a time of 11 minutes, 16.14 seconds and also ran a leg of that 4x800 relay.

The two alone helped account for 64 points.

The real story of the regional meet, however, was sophomore Dorehn Coleman. After a handful of runner-up performances at the county meet, Coleman broke through with first place showings in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes.

"She was easily the best sprinter there. There wasn't really even one (race) that was close," Lauer said.

Lauer also credited a couple PR efforts from Tope Olajobi (91-10 in the discus) and Jeanne Bikoi (31-7.50 in the shot put) to helping the winning effort.

Oakland Mills (4x100) and Marriotts Ridge (4x200) each enjoyed some success in the relays with a first-place finish apiece. The Mustangs' Jocelyn Henline was a regional champ as well in the pole vault.

On the boys' side, Mt. Hebron finished with 90 points, which was 20 behind first-place North Point. Vikings' distance runner Zach Weinstein turned in a great meet, winning the 1,600 by less than a second over teammate Tom Gorman and also capturing first in the 3,200. Jackson Jordan contributed a pair of second place finishes in the 110- and 300-meter hurdles.

River Hill's Craig Morgan won the 800 and finished second in the 3,200. The Hawks' 4x800 relay team also finished first and by meet's end the team had 53 points, which was good enough for fourth.

3A East

The Howard girls used their distance runners, Elyse Borisko and Meredith Mill, to score points in bunches en route to finishing third (72 points).

Mill followed up a breakthrough county meet by winning the 800 in 2:23.24 and finishing third in the 1,600. Borisko brought home second in both the 1,600 and 3,200 behind Meade's Anna Grimes.

Lunden Hawkins also contributed a first place showing in the high jump for Howard.

Long Reach, which was fifth with 53 points, had Funmi Alabi win the 100 and its 4x100 and 4x200 relay squads also won gold. Wilde Lake, which finished sixth with 41 points, got first place efforts from Shianna Smith (discus) and Laura Shoemaker (pole vault).

Atholton's Graham Bazell and Howard's Joey Thompson continued their battle in the distance events, with each earning one first place finish.

Bazell, who says he's finally back in shape after a stress fracture to his right ankle during the indoor season, put together his fastest outdoor time ever, 9:15.63, in the 3,200. It was 17 seconds faster than his effort at the county championships.

"The 3,200 is definitely the event that I feel the most comfortable with at this point and I finally feel like I'm getting back to where I wanted to be," Bazell said. "The injury threw things off a little, but my time kind of proves I'm back. The great thing is I feel like I still haven't reached my peak."

Thompson finished second to Bazell in the 3,200 and then captured first in what has become his strongest event, the 1,600. For the second straight week he broke 4:20 with a time of 4:19.19, three seconds ahead of Bazell. Thompson later added a second place effort in the 800 as well.

The other first place efforts from the county were Long Reach's Alvin Thomas (shot put) and Atholton's 4x800 relay team.

E-mail Brent Kennedy at bkennedy@patuxent.com.

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