Westminster’s Emma Reaves was happy with her second-place finish in the shot put at the indoor track and field championships, but she was far from content.
She went into outdoor season with her sights set on gold — and records.
Reaves, a University of New Hampshire commit, won the Class 3A state discus title with a throw of 153 feet, 11 inches on Tuesday during the first day of the state track and field championships. Her throw is a 3A state meet record and the second best throw among all classes dating to 1972.
Her winning throw Tuesday was more than 27 feet ahead of second place Gabby Cope of Northern. It was the top throw overall in Maryland this season and 30th best throw in the nation, according to athletic.net.
It was one of a handful of successes on Day 1 of the state track championships at Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex, where Classes 4A and 3A got underway with a handful of finals and running preliminaries.
A year ago, River Hill girls track and field won the 3A state championship on the strength of its distance runners. The Hawks are off to a good start to doing it again.
In the first event, River Hill won the 3A girls 4×800 relay. Lauren Virmani, Nikita Mohan, Alyssa Mattes and Marella Virmani teamed to win the event in 9 minutes, 15.31 seconds.
Howard’s Joey Ensor claimed a pair of gold medals Tuesday. He won the 3A 3,200 in 9:29.75. Earlier in the day, he teamed with Max vom Saal, Amadeus Davis and Rayyan Dheini to win the 4×800 relay in 7:50.71.
On the 3A girls’ side, the Arundel 4×200 relay team of Ta’Laiya Mellerson, Bryce Hatcher, Grace Hickman and Noel Evans won the state title. The quartet ran 1:39.36, beating Oakland Mills, Howard and City, who all finished within five seconds of first.
Oakland Mills junior Alicia Hall won the triple jump with a leap of 38 feet, 11 1/4 inches, a foot further than Long Reach’s Aniyah Toppin.
Also for 3A girls, Edgewood’s Brielle Whitworth finished second in the 3,200 and Centennial’s Avery Voeltner was second in pole vault.
For 3A boys, in the 4×200, Digital Harbor, Milford Mill and Oakland Mills all finished within a half-second of each other, but the Rams’ team of Jevonte Williams, DeAndre Thomas, LaMont Johnson and Jawon Blue won in 1:26.34.
Digital Harbor, which is trying to repeat its state championship from indoor track, also got a second-place finish from Tristan Gray in the shot put.
Oakland Mills’ AJ York won the high jump, clearing 6-4, and Severna Park’s Kian Williams won the long jump (22-8).
In team standings, Oakland Mills (30 points), leads Digital Harbor (22) and Howard (20) in the race for the 3A boys title. Oakdale (20) leads Oakland Mills (18) and River Hill (16) on the girls’ side.
In 4A, Old Mill’s 4×800 relay team of Colin Prato, Damien Holland, Christian Rozanski and Tsedeke Jakovics won the state title in 7:54. Jakovics came back to finish third in the 3,200.
Broadneck’s Carson Boteler fell short in her effort to repeat as pole vault champion, finishing third. Though she set a personal outdoor record of 11-6 and matched the top two finishers, her initial miss at the height before clearing it put her in third.
In the boys’ team standings, Governor Thomas Johnson has a commanding lead with 41 points. Old Mill (21) is slightly ahead of Urbana (20) for second place. On the girls’ side, Urbana leads with 35 points. Eleanor Roosevelt is second with 29.5.
The state championships continue Wednesday with the first day of competition for Classes 2A and 1A. The finals for all classes will be Thursday.
