Greyhounds Race Past Competition in A Conference Track and Field Championships

Showing a great amount of depth in a variety of events, the Gilman track and field team ran away from the competition to win the 2011 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association’s A conference outdoor championship meet.

It is the third straight year the Greyhounds have won the event.  The victory comes on the heels of a successful indoor season that saw meet for the first time since the cup was named for their head coach, Johnnie Foreman.

Gilman won six of the 18 events, including three of the four relay races, to top second place Archbishop Curley, 178-122.  At least two Greyhound competitors earned points in 11 contests, while 15 different team members scored points in individual events.

“It was a lot of hard work, and I’m happy that we were champions in both the indoor and outdoors seasons,” Gilman coach Johnnie Foreman said in a telephone interview.  “I owe a great debt to my assistant coaches; without them, we would not be where we are.”

He especially was grateful for the work of three-time Olympian Pat Connolly, whose training methods took the team to the next level.  Foreman noted her help with technique, training mechanisms and running styles, among others.

Sprints

It began with the Gilman sprinters, who amassed 58 points out of a possible 72 in the three dashes.  The Greyhounds swept the 100 meter dash, placed three runners in the 200 meter and finished 1-2 in the 400.

Speedster Darius Jennings won the 100 in 11.01 seconds; teammate Cyrus Jones placed second in 11.19 and Taaj Amin third in 11.27.

Jennings also won the 400 meter dash, clocking a 49.29; Chris Watson placed second with a time of 50.68.

A second place finish for Jennings in the 200 added eight points to the Greyhound total; his time of 22.21 was .02 seconds off the pace set by winner Thomas Davis of Mt. St. Joe.  Jones was third at 22.91 and Amin fifth in 23.35.

Team speed in the dash events continued to be evident in three relay races where Gilman totaled 24 out of a possible 30 points.  The Greyhounds raced to wins in the 4 x 200 (1:30.93) and 4 x 400 relays (3:25.06), and placed fourth in the 4 x 100 relay (45.72).

Jennings ran the all-important anchor leg in the 200 relay and passed his Curley opponent coming out of the final curve, then held him off in a fierce stretch run to lead the Greyhounds to a .05 second win.  Amin ran the first leg, followed by Kenneth Goins, Bobby Fenwick and Jennings.

Fenwick was first with the baton in the 4 x 400, passing off to Alex DeWeese who handed it to Matt Schlerf.  Watson ran the anchor.

The Greyhounds inserted the ‘B’ relay team for the 4 x 100 meter relay.  Amin, Chris McMaster, DeWeese and Goins teamed up to earn four fourth place points.

Distance

Relay success showed up again in the distance event, when Gilman won the 4 x 800 in a time of 7:53.64.  Peter Merritt opened the race, followed by Kevin Chen, Jibri McLean and Watson.

The Greyhounds also showed good depth in the individual distance events, where they placed 2-3-4 in the 800 meter run and had second place finishes in the 1600 and 3200 meter runs.

Merritt edged teammates Chen and McLean to grab second in the 800.  Merritt covered the distance in 1:59.01, Chen in 1:59.24 and McLean in 1:59.43.  Jon Cook from Curley won with a time of 1:57.86.

Will Meadows placed second in both the 1600 and 3200 meter runs.  He ran the 1600 in 4:26.34 and the 3200 in 9:35.67.  Teammate Sam Zunkeler (9:50.73) finished third in the 3200 to add six points to the Gilman total while Jack Flowers (4:31.62) finished sixth in the 1600 to score a point for the Greyhounds.

Gilman concluded the track portion of the event with Fenwick placing third in the 300 meter hurdles (40.97) and fifth in the 110 meter hurdles (16.31).  Teammate McMaster edged Fenwick in the 110 to take a fourth place in 15.96.

Field Events

The Greyhounds grabbed a first place medal in one field event when Michael Kane’s 12 feet 6 inches leap in the pole vault was good enough to edge out Jamie Dubyoski of Loyola, who also cleared 12 feet 6 inches.  Kane won based on fewer misses.  Gilman’s Ryan Rizzutto finished tied for sixth in the event, with a vault of 9 feet 6 inches.

The team scored multiple points in the long jump, triple jump, and high jump.

Jones cleared 20 feet 5 3/4 inches to take second in the long jump. McMaster placed fourth with a jump of 20 feet 1 inch.

Jordan Britton’s triple jump of 43 feet 3 1/4 inches was good enough for a fourth place finish, just ahead of McMaster’s fifth place distance of 43 feet 3 inches.

Merritt scored four points for the Greyhounds in the high jump, clearing 5 feet 8 inches to claim fourth place.  Britton also had a jump of 5 feet 8 inches yet ended up in a tie for sixth with Mt. St. Joe’s Jaymar Faulkner.  The places were determined based on the number of misses in previous attempts.

Team points are awarded on a sliding scale: 10 points for a first place finish, eight for second, six for third, four for fourth, two for fifth and one for sixth.

Gilman’s junior varsity won its competition, out scoring second place Mt. St. Joe 194-110.

The events were held on May 11 and 14 at Calvert Hall.