Indoor Track: Damascus boys and girls clinch region titles

There was a time when you could point to Damascus’s distance contingent as the unquestioned strength of its indoor track team. It appears that time may be starting to slip away.

That's not because the quality of the Hornets’ distance program has diminished. In fact, at the 3A West Region championships Wednesday in Landover, Ben Constantinides and Thomas Arias went 1-2 in the 1,600; Arias and Jon Constantinides went 1-2 in the 800; and Ben Constantinides won the 3,200.

But it is because the non-distance members have developed a healthy jealousy of the distance squad that the Hornets were able to win the region championship over Largo and Linganore and install themselves as the prohibitive favorites to win Tuesday’s state championship.

In the 500, which is considered a sprint, Jon Constantinides and Devante Thomas finished second and third, respectively, behind Ben McKenzie of Largo (1:06.54), who also took the 300 in 35.39 seconds. Apart from winning the 4x800 relay, something it was expected to do, Damascus got points in the 4x200 and won the 4x400.

Damascus’s ability to have multiple scorers in most events allowed it to win the Montgomery County championship last month over larger 4A schools and makes it one of the most feared teams in the Washington area.

In the girls’ meet on Wednesday, wins in the 4x400 and 4x800 and a pair of runner-up finishes by Alexsundra Carroll in the 500 and 800 helped Damascus hold off Quince Orchard and Frederick.

Kennedy junior Thea LaFond took home two gold medals. She was seeded third going into the final round of the 55 hurdles, but won the event in 8.51 seconds. She captured the high jump title with 5-2.