Long Jump

LANDOVER -- The top-ranked Mount St. Joseph boys and McDonogh girls took the suspense out of last night's Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association/Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland meet at the Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex. Both teams used their depth and talent to take command early, and each had first place wrapped up by the midway point. Each also regularly scored points with more than one person in each race, allowing them pull away. Mount St. Joseph finished with 131 points to easily beat out No. 3 Gilman (68.5)

Dani Woods summed up Alabama's plight in the College Softball World Series: "One strike. One simple little strike." That's all Crimson Tide sophomore first baseman Woods (Dulaney) and her teammates needed to become the first team in school history to gain an opening-round victory last week. Making that elusive, never-to-be-recorded strike even harder to digest was the fact that Tide pitcher Chrissy Owens and her teammates thought they had the game-clinching strikeout on a controversial 1-2 pitch to Northwestern's Erin Dyer with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning and Alabama leading 5-4. Owens would then serve up a game-tying home run on the next pitch to Dyer, sending the game into extra innings and leading to a 6-5 loss in 10 innings.

McDonogh's Gross good as four golds Sport Track and field BOYS Senior Jason Gross accounted for 40 of McDonogh's 83 points by collecting four gold medals as the No. 4 Eagles placed fourth at the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association championships at Calvert Hall on Saturday. He captured the 200 meters in 22.30 seconds, the 400 in 51.27, the long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 4 1/2 inches and the triple jump with 44-3 1/2 . Gross' victory in the long jump wasn't sealed until his final attempt, when he moved from fourth to first with that distance.

For the second time in as many years, the Long Reach track and field program swept the boys and girls crowns at the Howard County championships last night at Long Reach in Columbia. The No. 6 girls team thwarted a bid by No. 5 Atholton to capture the school's ninth straight county title. The No. 6 boys squad won its second consecutive crown and third since 2000. To senior Tiffani Long, the victories reinforced the consensus among the Lightning that the track and field program is a dynasty.

While the fourth-ranked North Carroll girls appear to be the heavy favorite at today's Carroll County track and field championships at Century, on the boys side, only one thing is clear. This is anybody's race. "Four or five teams could be in it," Westminster coach Jeremiah Smith said. Said Francis Scott Key coach Tim Walsh: "It will be close between Francis Scott Key, Liberty, Westminster and Century." Key, which lost just one dual meet to a county opponent this year, has a chance to step up big in the meet, but with just 15 athletes on its roster, also has little margin for error.

Brad Williams, Liberty SPORT TRACK AND FIELD BOYS STATS -- Despite taking a shorter approach due to a recent hamstring injury, Williams still has the best triple jump in the county this spring (44 feet), as well as the second-best long jump (20 feet, 1 inch). He's also a standout in the 200- and 400-meter sprints. SIDELINES -- The senior earned All-County honors in outdoor track last spring and indoor track this winter. Expected to be among the top contenders for a Class 2A state title in the triple jump later this month, Williams is also a standout in the classroom.

PHILADELPHIA -- As she rushes down the homestretch of her collegiate track and field career, Kierra Foster continues to raise her sights. The University of Maryland senior from West Palm Beach, Fla., is already a two-time NCAA indoor medalist in the long jump. With a leap of 20 feet, 10 inches yesterday at Franklin Field, she claimed the women's collegiate championship of the 112th Penn Relays. Now the NCAA title - on the line June 7-10 in Sacramento, Calif. - becomes her goal. "It's a boost," she said of her winning jump.

Larry Long began training his daughter to run and jump when she was 14. Now, she is running in his footsteps after committing to compete in track and field at the University of Maryland, where he also competed for the Terps. Tiffani Long has dominated the long jump in the metro area, winning the state championship the past two years. The four-year varsity athlete leads the area in the long jump again this season, as she leaped 17 feet, 11 1/2 inches at the Nike Indoor Nationals in addition to breaking the Howard County championship record by 4 3/4 inches with a leap of 17-8 1/2 . Long's leap of 34-3 3/4 in the triple jump also beat the previous county mark of 34-3 1/4 . Long Reach coach Gregory Johnson said Long leads by example and has been a main force in the success of the program, which has won the county outdoor championships for eight consecutive years.

The word "tomboy" is an insult to some girls. To Shalaiyah Sommerville, it was an apt description. "I was a tomboy," she said. "[My mother] always made me wear a dress, but I would put shorts on underneath so that I could race the boys." Those races would provide the foundation for a track and field career that has helped Sommerville graduate from running lightpole to lightpole in her neighborhood to becoming one of the best sprinters in the metro area. The Western senior is putting the finishing touch on a high school resume that includes individual state crowns in the 200- and 400-meter sprints, 15 individual regional and Baltimore City titles and four appearances on the All-Metro team in indoor and outdoor track and field.

Erin Brooks -- Seton Keough, sprints, jumps -- The sophomore will try to duplicate her performance from last spring, when she won three events at the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland championships and set a meet record in each one. Katie Hursey -- North Carroll, distance -- The junior has the strength and willpower to aim for another sweep of the 1,600 and 3,200 at the Carroll County, Class 3A West regional and state championships....