On a day when the sunny, spring weather matched the easy-going spirit of Atholton's Raider Relays, Atholton senior pole vaulter Omar El Sawi garnered the top highlight by setting a meet and personal-best record of 14 feet, 2 inches.
El Sawi, who had an indoor best of 14-1 and qualified for the indoor national championships at Syracuse (N.Y.) University, surpassed 14-2 with little difficulty. With the bar moved up to 14-4, the Raider record-holder missed in his last three attempts.
"There was a little bit of a side wind blowing from left to right, but the weather conditions otherwise were ideal," El Sawi said. "It was different just competing against my teammates, so I pumped myself up by going for heights in order to attract college dollars [scholarships]. Every inch really counts."
Atholton freshman Mike Eshoo (7-6) placed second in an all-Raider pole-vaulting field.
Atholton played host to county rivals Howard, Wilde Lake and Hammond in the nonscoring competition.
Atholton junior Adrian Valdez paced the Raiders to first-place finishes in the shot put and discus. Valdez, along with teammates Kevin Gottsman and Brian Burns, combined for a shot-put distance of 114-1 1/4 to best second-place Wilde Lake by nearly four feet.
In the discus, Valdez surprised even Atholton coach Pat Saunderson with a toss of 117-6 as the Raiders amassed a total distance of 321.6 feet.
Other field champions included Atholton in the long jump, with senior Ed Chang's leap of 18-1 taking first, and the Raiders in the high jump (5-2 best, 15-2 total) and triple jump (34-3 best, 96-4 1/2 total).
The Wilde Lake boys dominated the track relays, winning the sprint event (100-300-200-400) and distance (1,600-400-800-1,200) with sophomore Faisal Hasan, senior Mike Prout and senior Ed Ashley leading the way.
Atholton's 1,600 boys relay team (3 minutes, 39 seconds) earned a first-place finish, besting the Raiders B team by 13 seconds with Hammond third (4:00).
In the girls relay events, yesterday's meet was highlighted by Hammond senior Kisha Jett and Atholton sophomore Dana Strickland.
After spending a season on basketball court, Strickland is getting back in her top long-distance running shape. The Raider sophomore paced her teammates to triumphs in the 3,200 relay, the distance relay and the mixed relay (800-300-200-400).
