McDonogh School and John Carroll School Capture Respective Titles in IAAM 2023-24 Track and Field Championships
By Gene Williams
Stars meeting expectations, then being complimented by an outstanding supporting cast of athletes resulted in team wins at the 2024 IAAM Indoor Track and Field Championship.
McDonogh and John Carroll used that formula to take home the A and B Conference winners’ crystal bowls on January 26 at the Prince Georges Sports and Learning Complex.
Defending champion McDonogh won a 12th title, while John Carroll celebrated its first indoor track team win.
Both winning head coach stated similar philosophies on a successful game plan.
Rob Torres has coached John Carroll with Mike Monahan for 22 years said their program got a “total team effort in every event.”
“Nearly all the girls entered scored points,” he added. “Probably 90 percent scored in their events.”
Turner said the key was to “Assemble a great staff. Then have a team effort to have fun coaching to provide an outlet for (athletes’) talent.”
He also expressed appreciation for Athletic Director Mickey Deegan for supporting the program.
"A" Conference
The Eagles racked up 196 points, followed by Archbishop Spalding, 130; Maryvale Prep,104; Mount de Sales, 52; Notre Dame Prep, 43; Bryn Mawr, 30; St. Mary’s, 15 and Roland Park, 14.
Spalding’s runnerup placement matched its 2011 placing. The Cavaliers’ won the inaugural meet in 2001.
Four A Conference championship records were set, three broken and one tied.
Coach Phil Turner’s team won 11 of 15 events contested. The flood gates were opened by the 4x800 meter relay team of McKenzie Brown, Mary Gorsky, Olivia Vassar and Zewdi Tesafayohannes.
Elise Cooper quickly followed by defending her 55 meter dash crown with a record run of 6.92 seconds. Backing the junior up were her sister Ella, third; and Kit Laake, seventh.
Le’la Greene took a third straight 55 hurdles crown while Morgan Heard and Kelsey Coley were second and fourth.
The night’s second conference record fell to the 4x200 relay of Elise, Ella and third sibling Elena Cooper, plus Grace Richardson with a 1:42.65 clocking.
In a shoulder-to-shoulder battle with Elena over the final meters of the 500, Elise picked up her third gold medal. Her fourth gold medal of the night came in the 300 dash as Ella took third and Greene fifth.
Gorsky returned to the track and secured a second consecutive 1600 win as Olivia Vassar placed eighth. She followed that with a fifth place in the 800 as teammate Brown earned second behind Spalding’s event winner Marisa Mock.
However, Gorsky got back to winning in the 3200 as Chrissy Vourlos was eigth.
McDonogh added a pair of field event records as Julia Norris tossed a new mark of 39-feet, 8.75 inches in the shot put and Caroline Birdsall equaled the pole vault standard at 11-feet, 6 inches.
Topping off the scoring in the night’s final event, the 4x400 relay, Brown, Laake, Greene and Coley ran 4:10.15 from the first (slower seeded) heat to best Mount de Sales and the rest of the field.
Spalding made its way into second overall by taking first in the four events available while gathering other points in as many events possible.
Led by Chayse Mitchell who won all three jumping events. The high jump, 5-02, along with the long jump (18-10.25), and triple jumps (36-05.75) producing a total 30 individual points points.
Backing her up were teammates Sarah Neiderer, seventh high jump; Athena Stith, second, and Katelyn Obara, eighth, in the long. While in the triple, it was Stith, third, and Obara, sixth.
Madison Fuerst placed second in the pole vault.
Besides Mock’s 800 winning the 800, Grace Reinecker, and Catherine Futch placed seventh and eighth.
Also contributing track points were Alexandra O’Connell was fourth in the 1600, and seventh in the 3200. Brooke Heine was seventh over 1600 and sixth in the 3200.
In the shorter races, Jalaia Creary, Mitchell, and Karise Manley, were third, fifth and seventh in the 55; Stith and Manley, fifth and seventh over the hurdles; Creary and Manley, second and eighth at 300.
"B" Conference
John Carroll’s 157.5 points nearly doubled Mercy’s runner up score of 79, to take its first ever IAAM indoor track and field championship.
Mercy was able to move into second ahead of St. Johns (74.5) by picking up 14 points, to 7.5, in the two (high jump and 4x400 relay) events that closed the night’s competition.
The top three were followed in the 11 school field by: Garrison Forest, 60; St. Vincent Pallotti, 49; Glenelg Country, 42; St. Paul’s, 35; Catholic, 33.5; Chapelgate Christian, 12.5; Friends, 7; St. Frances, 5.
Another four alterations were made to B Conference records: John Carroll multiple gold medalists, Lauren Gallagher and Maddie Wassin both set new marks. Gallagher in the 500, 1:20.21; and Wassin over 3200, 11:45.08.
In the field St. John’s Makayla Ferrell upped the pole mark to 10-feet even.
Garrison Forest’s quartet of Tiana Griffin, Kennedy Myrie, Bryah Breaux, and Kaya Aydelt covered the 4x200 relay in 1:48.51 early in the meet.
Besides Gallagher’s (300) and Wassin’s (1600 and 4x800 relay, along with Cali Friedel, Lily Holcomb, and Maggie Moloney) extra 10 points per win John Carroll got a win in the 800 from Friedel.
West Point bound Gallagher also placed sixth in both the 55 and shot put.
In the longer races Holcomb was fifth in the 1600, while Moloney, second, and Ellery Shertzer, fourth, to contribute to the team total.
Proving winning isn’t the only way to score big there were four events where all three JC entries raked in valuable points.
In the hurdles they went two, three, and five with Danica Ross, Rylee Smolenski, and Bella Mercado.
The long jump provide a sixth, seventh and eighth from Addison Weaver, Taylor Pate, and Izzy Grace.
The Triple jumpers placed second, third and fifth with Ross, Weaver and Smolenski.
Results of the high jump added a second, third and sixth from Ross, Weaver and Smolenski.
Mercy’s second place team only took home one track event win. That came in what proved to be the all-important 4x400. Ashley Bowman, Madison Mayo, Mackenzie Borchers and Jazmyne Helmick preformed as required to provide the final cushion to hold St. John’s.
Big points also came in the 3200 by Grace willis, third and Mikeala Latoga, fifth; and sixth and seventh respectively in the 1600. Over 800 Borchers was fourth and Brooke deWitt, eighth.
A wining throw in the shot put by Veronica King, and a sixth by Georgia Hannah-Leverett was big in starting the Magic’s silver putsuit.
Other winning performances came from Garrison Forest’s Aydlett, 55, 7.48; Autumn Ward, Pallotti, high jump; Samara Ayodele, Pallotti, long jump; and Julia Riordan, St. John’s, triple jump.