Indoor track: Fleet 1,600-meter times highlight first day of Concorde District meet

Fleet times in the 1,600 meters headlined the first day of the Virginia AAA Concorde District championships Thursday in Landover. Six girls, four of whom compete for Oakton, and five boys all ran personal-best times and were faster than the automatic state qualifier on the 200-meter track inside Prince George’s Sports & Learning Complex.

“I’ve never seen that happen,” third-year Oakton Coach Alisa Byers said. “They were just very fast.”

Cougars freshman Allie Klimkiewicz, an All-Met selection last fall during the cross-country season, polished off an intense race with the district title in 5 minutes 6.70 seconds, nearly a four-second improvement over her previous best time. Junior teammate Briana Stewart crossed one second behind her, and Robinson sophomore Macey Schweikert was one second behind Stewart. The top six girls followed each other right across the line and each ran faster than the state auto-qualifying time of 5:14.27.

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Things were just as tight on the boys' side, but toward the end of the eight-lap race only two runners were in the hunt for the victory. Chantilly junior All-Met Sean McGorty and Oakton senior Michael McNamee both broke the meet record of 4:16.75 set in 2002, but it was McGorty, a Foot Locker all-American during the cross-country season, was the champion in 4:15.29. McNamee, who will run for Virginia Tech next year, was just behind in 4:15.78. Those two times currently lead the state this season.

Thanks to their work in the 1,600 and the efforts of Meghan Jean-Baptiste — the junior won the hurdles and the high jump and was runner-up in the long jump — the girls from Oakton owned a 19-point lead over Robinson after Day 1. Chantilly and Oakton were tied at 53 points apiece on the boys’ side. The second and final day of the meet will be held Feb. 2.

Herndon’s Carina Peter won two gold medals. The senior easily separated from Robinson’s Genamarie McCant in the 55 and crossed in a personal-best 7.14 seconds. McCant was runner-up in 7.39.

Peter used that sprint speed to power herself down the runway in the long jump. Her personal-best leap of 18 feet 9.75 inches broke the meet record of 18-7 set in 1995.

Robinson senior Chioma Onyekwere dominated the shot put. She won by more than six feet with 39-10.25, a meet record by almost 10 inches.

Robinson junior Ayo Raymond won the boys’ 55 ahead of Herndon’s Ben Green in 6.44.

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