Track team competes at counties; girls win the 4×800 meter

By Jose Wray

The track team competed at the county championships May 9 against opponents from 24 schools across Montgomery County, finishing in 23rd overall for boys and 15th for girls. The girls team placed first in the 4×800 meter relay for the second year in a row and fifth in the 4×400 meter relay. The boys 4×800 meter relay put up a season best time of 8:20.70, earning sixth place.

Junior Breanna McDonald placed fourth in the women’s 800 meter, posting a personal record of 2:19.58. Junior Michael Murphy also added points for the team with his eighth place finish in the Men’s 3200 meter.

McDonald, along with junior Shanti Ashley, sophomore Elizabeth Sklaire and freshman Samantha Rubin beat rival BCC Barons by one hundredth of a second to take first place in the 4×800 meter relay. McDonald gave the team a wide lead to start the race, but the Barons made a strong push at the end, creeping up on the Vikes heading into the final leg. Rubin held off the Barons’ last efforts, securing first place for the team.

“We were really excited because it was such a close race,” Sklaire said.

Although the team didn’t perform as well as last year, it was still a successful meet for a young team.

“We lost a lot of seniors last year, so we didn’t quite get as many medals or ribbons as we did last year,” said coach Stephen Hayes. “But it was good, I thought we did very well.”

The team’s next competition will be regionals May 16 and 17 at Gaithersburg High School.