Private Schools Invite Recap: Top Girls Sprinters, Jumpers Put On A Show At Georgetown Prep

The aftermath of the fast heat of the girls 300 at Saturday's Private Schools Invite.

The first Saturday of February was a quiet one for most public schools in Maryland (besides the 1A/2A West regionals at Hagerstown Community College), but many of the top private schools from the DC Metro area met at Georgetown Prep for the annual Private/Independent Schools Invite. Here were some of the notable storylines that emerged from Saturday's meet.

Top-Flight Performances In Girls' Sprints, Jumps

There was plenty of top-flight Maryland talent on display on the girls' side on Saturday, especially in the sprints and jumps. St. Mary's Ryken's Kelisa Cain and McDonogh's Jada Seaman went 1-2 in the 55 finals, running MD #3 and #4 times, respectively. Seaman was also one of four girls to break 41 seconds in the 300 - not a small feat on the tight-turn track at Georgetown Prep. However, it was Bullis junior Lauryn Harris who managed to hold off Georgetown Day's Ziyah Holman by two hundredths of a second, 40.11 to 40.13, in what may have been the race of the day. Holman was not to be denied, though - she ran away with the 500 in a DC #2 performance of 1:17.40.

Over in the pit, Seaman and Bullis' Cierra Pyles re-arranged the Maryland leaderboard in the long jump. Both girls recorded jumps of 18'11.00, the best in the state so far this season. Pyles won on the tiebreaker, holding onto the top spot on the state leaderboard with Seaman jumping up to second. Pyles also set an indoor personal best in the triple jump, but it wasn't enough to take the top spot in the state because McNamara's Taylor Grimes bested her by four inches (39'5.75). Since 2015, only Huntingtown's Harleigh White has recorded a better indoor triple jump.

Top Private School Distance Runner In The State?

A couple of weeks ago, there was no question as to who the top boys private school distance runner in Maryland was. However, Dalton Hengst's transfer to Bishop Shanahan in his home state of Pennsylvania opened the discussion back up, and Mount St. Joe's Hunter Petrik seems poised to earn the title. He finished second behind Hengst at the MD-DC Private School XC Championships in the fall and owns the top 1600 time in the state this winter (among all runners, public and private). On Saturday, he ran his first 3200 of the season, soloing a 9:34.32 performance that places him seventh on the state leaderboard (and tops among private school runners).

DeMatha Boys: Fast

Last weekend the DeMatha boys won the 4x200 at the Dr. Sander Invitational at the Armory in New York City. This past weekend, they returned and ran a season best 1:27.62 at the Millrose Games, which would have been a MD #1 had Bullis not won with their season best performance of 1:27.16.

The point, however, is that the DeMatha boys have made a case to be the top boys' sprint team in the state this season. Senior Brendon Stewart won the 55 meter dash at the Millrose Games on Saturday, clocking a MD #1 time of 6.34, and is also one of two boys to have run under 34 seconds in the 300 this season. On Saturday junior Nick Cross also won the 55 meter dash at the Private Schools Invite, matching his season best of 6.43 seconds. And senior Nick Wilson currently ranks 11th in the state in the 300 (35.71) and second in the 400 (49.14). All told, it will be entertaining to watch them and the Bullis boys go head-to-head as two of the top boys' sprint programs in the country throughout the rest of 2018.

Four New Meet Records

Four new meet records were set on Saturday. Two were already mentioned (Kelisa Cain and Nick Cross in the 55 meter dashes) and the other two were set by out-of-state boys jumpers. St. Stephens & St. Agnes' (VA) Jordan Walker set a season best in the long jump at 23'2.75 to win the long jump, moving him up to #3 on the Virginia state leaderboard. Milton Hershey's (PA) Treyvon Ferguson set an indoor personal best in the triple jump in his season debut; his effort of 48'6.50 was a new meet record and a new Pennsylvania #1 mark.