BALTIMORE — Allegany County’s three public schools each brought home gold medals on Day 1 of the Maryland Class 1A track and field state championship meet on Thursday at Morgan State’s Hughes Stadium.
Day 2 of the rain-soaked meet will conclude on Monday in Baltimore beginning at 10 a.m. It was postponed from Saturday due to the forecast of rain with 20-plus mph winds and temperatures in the lower 50s.
Allegany senior Briley Linaburg captured the pole vault title with a leap of 11’ 4”. Linaburg is signed to pole vault at Frostburg State.
Fort Hill junior Casey Martz was the shot put champion, with his 50’ 7” throw clearing second place by nearly three feet.
The Mountain Ridge 4×800-meter girls relay of Sophia Brill, Ashylnn and Aynsley Hawkins and Fiona Ruddell won the event in a time of 9:49.75.
The Miners’ girls team, which won the Class 1A West Region championship last week, sits second in the field at 28.5 points after Day 1, just behind Patterson Mill’s 33. Allegany is fourth (23) and Southern is tied for 10th (eight).
Fort Hill is the highest-placing local school in boys after the opening day’s events at seventh (11 points). Smithsburg is first at 34.5 points.
Aynsley Hawkins, a sophomore, was also a silver medalist in the 3200m with a time of 11:43.91.
Three more locals were bronze medalists.
Mountain Ridge junior Caroline Orndorff was third in the long jump (16’), Allegany sophomore Rylee Bauer placed third in the discus (109’), and Fort Hill sophomore Addison Beem took third in the pole vault (10’).
Other area girls top-eight finishers included Southern sophomore Ariana Healey (long jump, fourth, 15’ 9.75”), Allegany sophomore Surae Stewart (discus, sixth, 99’ 2”), and Mountain Ridge freshmen Alyah Hutchens (pole vault, sixth, 8’ 6”) and Maysa Reece (3200m, eighth, 12:34.33).
In the 4x800m relay, the Allegany team of Braylin Bosley, Corinna Hilderbrand, Ellena Nelson and Zoe Ditto placed fifth, and Southern’s Carla DeBerry, Margot Ludwig, Raelynn Smith-Pritt and McNeely Bosley were sixth.
Mountain Ridge’s 4x200m relay of Allie Knieriem, Kealana Pua’auli, Orndorff and Carolyn Hughes placed eighth.
Also placing for the boys on Day 1 were Fort Hill junior Easton Peters in the shot put, who took eighth (43’ 4”), and Mountain Ridge’s 4x800m relay of Chase DeWitt, David Malone, Harrison Ruddell and Austin Simpson.