The team’s first-year head coach compared the second straight outdoor track-and-field girls championship of the Washington-Liberty Generals to a puzzle.
The Generals convincingly won the Liberty District high-school title with 136 points at Wakefield High School, well ahead of the runner-up Langley Saxons with 86.
“It was not easy to do and it was a great feeling,” W-L coach Randy Lott told ARLnow. “The key to winning was setting things up right by getting the pieces of a puzzle together in the right order. The team did a lot of the little things that we were capable of doing.”
The Generals won with balance throughout the meet and scoring in almost every event.
Individually, Washington-Liberty was led among others by the performances of seniors Gabriella Netwell and Eve Jungman and freshmen Genevieve Holt and Maeve Gomes.
Netwell was a triple-winner. She finished first in the 200 (25.71 seconds) and 400 (56.61) dash races and won the long jump (16-feet, 9 1/2-inches). The West Point commit also was second in the high jump and ran on a fourth-place relay, and had the fastest split time of the four.
“She was outstanding as always,” Lott said.
Jungman, a basketball standout during the winter for the W-L girls team, won the discus (111 feet) and shot put (38-11) and was fourth in the triple jump.
Holt was third in the 100 and 300 hurdle races and 100 dash and fourth in the long jump. Gomes placed fourth in the 200, fifth in the 400, sixth in the high jump and ran on a relay.
Also for the W-L girls, Maddie Brys was another winner in the 800 (2:17.10) and the 4×800 relay was first in 9:34.21. That relay consisted of Brys, Aida Edsall, Caroline Kaplan and Emily Buckwalter.
Individually, Buckwalter was fifth in the 800 and Edsall eighth in the 400.
Finishing fourth for the Generals were Keena Dorney in the 400 and the 4×100 and 4×400 relays. Fifth were Addison Schimmel in the pole vault and Logan Milton in the shot put and sixth were Mina Dowler in the 3,200 and Louisa Moran in the discus.
“Overall, our team was pretty relaxed for the meet,” Lott said.
For the Yorktown Patriots in the girls meet, Molly Hardwick won 1,600 (4:54.48) and 3,200 (10:24.11) and was second in the 800 and Jordyn Gooden won the 100 (12.7).
Leading the Wakefield girls was Kayleigh Williams with seconds in the shot and discus, Ada Jordan with a second in the 400 and third in the triple jump, and Zahra Melei Akpa placing second in the 100.
Wakefield second, W-L third in boys results
In the boys meet, the Wakefield Warriors finished a close second to the McLean Highlanders, with the Washington-Liberty boys third.
Wakefield was led by triple-winner and senior Chris Gilpin in the 100 and 200 sprint races with times of 10.79 and 22.16, respectively, and a first in the long jump (21-5). Gilpin also was second in the high jump and ran on the winning 4×100 relay (43.14).
Wakefield’s other winners were Theodore Fusarelli in the 400 (51.0) and Devon Carlson in the pole vault (14-feet) along with a fifth in the 110 hurdles.
Second for Wakefield were Carter Lyons in the 400 and Diego Fernandez in the pole vault. Third were Eduardo Vitols in the 200, Derrick Rich in the triple and high jumps and Cyrus Archuletta in the pole vault.
Ethan Tanenbaum was fourth in the long jump, Andrew Coe fourth in the 3,200 and Dylan Hutchinson sixth in the triple jump and 300 hurdles. Lyons, Tanenbaum and Emmett Thompson also ran on the winning relay.
Leading the W-L boys was double-winner Elijah Purdy in the 800 (1:59.36) and 1,600 (4:31.36) and single winners Morgan Fritz (3,200, 9:52.31) and Ben Tahu (high jump, 6-feet). Fritz was fourth in the 1,600.
For the Yorktown boys, the 4×100 and 4×800 relays each placed third.
