Meet Record

Three county records and 11 Ivan Walker championship meet records were broken in an extraordinary display of athleticism last night at the Howard County indoor track meet at the 5th Regiment Armory.River Hill won its first indoor county title, capturing the boys division with 105 points. Oakland Mills took second (80) and Wilde Lake third (70).Long Reach captured its second straight girls championship, finishing with 81 points. Glenelg had 74 points, one ahead of third-place River Hill.Oakland Mills sophomore Kyle Farmer took the Iron Man award for the second consecutive year.

Ellie Gonzalez Catholic, junior As the best distance runner in the Baltimore area, Gonzalez earned the top honor for the third straight season. The Cubs junior, who also was the Runner of the Year in cross country in the fall and the Performer of the Year in indoor track in the winter, easily won the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races at the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland championship meet last month to complete a perfect spring. Gonzalez won the 3,200 by almost 45 seconds and the 1,600 by nearly 26seconds - unusually large margins of victory for distance races.

Mattie Cymek of Chesapeake-Anne Arundel set a meet record in the shot put and was one of the area's few individual winners at yesterday's 30th Annual Maryland National Guard Games at the Fifth Regiment Armory.Cymek broke a seven-year record with her throw of 41 feet. The previous mark of 40-11 1/2 was set in 1984.Eleanor Roosevelt and Bowie, both of Prince George's County, captured the girls and boys titles, respectively. Bowie's win in the boys 1,600-meter relay, the final event of the evening, gave the Bulldogs the boys title over Perry Hall, 34-32.

That door Michael Phelps keeps slamming on ever again swimming the exhausting 400-meter individual medley race? Apparently, it's a revolving one. After the Baltimore swimmer raced to a record-setting finish in the 400 IM at the Indianapolis Grand Prix Friday night, he said that there was a chance he would add the event to his still secret line-up in the Olympics this summer. "Who knows?" an exuberant Phelps said when asked if this really, really, really was the last time he would swim the race he swore off after the 2008 Olympics, but has since returned to multiple times.

Ellie Gonzalez Catholic, junior As the best distance runner in the Baltimore area, Gonzalez earned the top honor for the third straight season. The Cubs junior, who also was the Runner of the Year in cross country in the fall and the Performer of the Year in indoor track in the winter, easily won the 1,600- and 3,200-meter races at the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland championship meet last month to complete a perfect spring. Gonzalez won the 3,200 by almost 45 seconds and the 1,600 by nearly 26seconds - unusually large margins of victory for distance races.

Lindsay Grigoriev of Atholton tied an 18-year-old Howard County shot put record and Carrie Selmer of Glenelg broke a 20-year-old meet record in the 3,200 meters during the first day of the two-day Howard County track and field championships yesterday at Oakland Mills. Long Reach's Timisha Gomez won the high jump (5 feet) and Damara Parrish won the long jump (15-7 3/4 ), and its 800 relay team of Dionne Lambert, Angie Watkins, Jarnae Carter and DaMara Parrish broke a meet record. The three firsts put the Lightning ahead of second-place Glenelg, 40-38, after six events.

Loyola kept its streak alive - although the host McDonogh swimmers made it interesting. The Dons won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship again last night. Loyola has won or shared the title for 17 straight years. The Dons won it 16 times outright and split the championship with Calvert Hall in 1994. They won the crown despite a national record-setting swim by McDonogh's Giles Smith in the 50-yard freestyle. His 19.74-second performance was the best ever for a private-school competitor.

Seven meet records fell as Long Reach swept the boys and girls Howard County track championships yesterday at Long Reach. It was the third straight title for the Long Reach girls and the first for the boys, who broke Wilde Lake's two-year winning streak. Long Reach's Teyarnte Carter won three events, set meet records in the 100 and 400 and won the Ironwoman Award as the outstanding female performer. Her teammate, Cynthia Nicholls, also won three events and broke a meet record in the long jump.

On a day when a starting sprinter went down to injury, and its premier quarter-miler was beaten, Mervo (207 points) still dominated the city championships, winning 15 of 17 events to easily dispatch runner-up Carver (104).Similarly, Western (203 points) overcame a disqualification in the 400 relay to crush the 15-team girls field, winning 12 of the 17 events and scoring nearly three times as many points as runner-up Northern (68).While Mervo was led by four-event gold medalist Royston Lyttle and hurdler Jason Panniell, the Doves had three-event winner Tamara Laing and hurdler Gabrielle Butler.

For Gilman, this was all about respect.The Greyhounds have lots of talent, but felt people often overlooked them. And they did not understand why. Nor did they like it."The respect was it," said Gilman coach Johnnie Foreman. "They wanted to prove a point. They wanted to show they could get it done."Gilman certainly made a statement yesterday in rolling to an easy victory at the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association track and field championships at McDonogh.The Greyhounds, whose 150 points put them comfortably ahead of McDonogh (106)

INDIANAPOLIS -- Michael Phelps on Friday won the race he loves to hate: the brutal, all-four-strokes endurance contest, the 400-meter individual medley at the Grand Prix. Setting a new record for the meet, Phelps powered past Tyler Clary, to finish at 4 minutes 12.51 seconds before an appreciative crowd at the Indiana University Natatorium. The question of the night, though, was whether they had seen the last Phelps 400 IM ever. The Baltimore swimmer has been threatening since the 2008 Olympics that he was done with the event considered the sport's toughest.

LANDOVER - The No. 2 Liberty girls have scored easy victories throughout the postseason, and they did more of the same at Monday's Class 2A championship meet. Liberty showed its balance and depth, finishing with 80 points for the school's first indoor state title.. Largo (44) and Douglass-PG (35) were a distant second and third at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex. “This is the best team we've ever had,” Liberty coach Bobby Ward said. “From top to bottom, they're just incredible.

It may be difficult to believe now, but Ellie Gonzalez joined a summer running program prior to her freshman year at Catholic High because "she was a little out of shape," according to Catholic coach Cathy Kearns. A year later, Gonzalez is not only in great shape, she's the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland champion after her record-setting 17:59 shattered the six-year-old meet record set by Bryn Mawr's Chrissy Johnson in 2005 by 31 seconds on the 3.1-mile Oregon Ridge Park course on Wednesday.

The 30th annual Laurel Invitational brought some of the best swimmers from Laurel City, Montpelier, Russett, West Arundel and West Laurel to Fairland Aquatics Center July 10. Since Laurel-based summer recreation teams usually compete in different Prince-Mont Swim League divisions (with the exception of Montpelier and West Arundel, who are both Division C), the Invitational is a chance for swimmers to compete against others from all divisions. Meet records were set by Montpelier's Dylan Buehler, 28.10 in boys 13-14 50-meter fly; Russett's Taylor Hicks, 36.84 in girls 15-18 50-meter breast; and West Arundel's Kellianne Venit, 37.01 in girls 15-18 50-meter breast.

No. 2 Western had a memorable indoor season, capping it by winning a state championship. The Doves found the same success in outdoor track Saturday, scoring a victory against a tough field at the Pikesville Track Classic. The Doves finished with 77 points to easily beat Oxon Hill (52), No. 9 Old Mill (51) and No. 1 McDonogh (50). Relays played a big part in the Western victory as the Doves won two, the 400 and 3,200 meters, and took second in the 1,600 and third in the 800. They also got some good individual performances from Desiree Vaughn, who won the 200 (25.17)

PERFORMER OF THE YEAR Graham Bazell Atholton There was no question that Bazell was the top distance runner in the area after he won the Class 3A state title in cross country and followed with a strong indoor season. But everything started to fall apart for the senior early in the spring season. The Stanford-bound Bazell began to get pain in his legs, and also had to battle fatigue. It took a while, but doctors finally figured out that he had a low potassium level and told him to eat about three bananas daily to get back to normal.

The similarities were obvious. Milford Mill's Mike Mamo and Dulaney's Amanda White each scored victories in yesterday's Baltimore County Cross-Country Championships at Oregon Ridge Park.It was the routes they took to get there that were different.White came into the race as confident as ever, fresh off a meet-record win at Saturday's prestigious Georgetown Prep Classic. Mamo said he began to doubt his abilities after finishing 10th in that same meet."My confidence was kind of low," said Mamo, who got off to a poor start and labored throughout the first half of the race.

Raina Domneys of Old Mill won three events yesterday at the 14th Golliday Invitational at Old Mill. Five running events remained when rain canceled the remainder of the events. They will not be made up.Domneys, a junior, claimed first in the 100 hurdles, triple jump and long jump. Old Mill had seven individual winners overall in the girls bracket.The boys team claimed first in seven events, including the shot put, where Jamaal Hawkins broke a meet record with a throw of 52 feet. Hawkins won the discus with a 136-8.

Top-ranked McDonogh turned the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland's championship meet into a display of how much talent and depth the team has - and it became quite a show. The Eagles dominated in every way possible to repeat as team champion. McDonogh's girls finished with 238 points on Saturday at Calvert Hall, beating runner-up Seton Keough (64) by an astonishing 174 points. The second- through seventh-place teams would have to combine their scores to match what the Eagles did by themselves.

Loyola kept its streak alive - although the host McDonogh swimmers made it interesting. The Dons won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship again last night. Loyola has won or shared the title for 17 straight years. The Dons won it 16 times outright and split the championship with Calvert Hall in 1994. They won the crown despite a national record-setting swim by McDonogh's Giles Smith in the 50-yard freestyle. His 19.74-second performance was the best ever for a private-school competitor.