On April 21st, the Linganore Track, and Field team participated in the McNamara Mustangs Invitational at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland.

Linganore competed in their biggest event of the year, with the McNamara Mustangs Invitational garnering 68 registering high schools for the event. The meet also hosted teams out of the state of Maryland, such as Glasgow from Delaware, Fairfax from Virginia, and Harrisburg High School from Pennsylvania. The boy’s team ended the meet placing 28th out of 39 teams, and the girls placed 12th. 

The Linganore boys, despite only sending less than 20 athletes to the competition, had every athlete make the finals in at least one of their events. Freshmen Adam Liston reached the finals in both long jump and the Freshman 400-meter dash. Gunnar Eklund and Michael Belmaggio both placed in the top 10 of the 3200-meter run, with Belmaggio placing second.

For the girls running events, Savannah Sitler reached the finals for the 400-meter dash and placed 20th with a time of 1:03.12 minutes. Ani Boghossian-James stood out in the 100-meter hurdles, placing 5th overall in the finals. The 4×800-meter relay team ran a fantastic race, placing 7th in the meet.

For the boy’s field events, Hudson Smith and Hope Baguio threw 92’1’’ and 87’6’’ feet for discus, earning them 31st and 41st place. Baguio also threw shot put, along with Joe Russo. Baguio placed 30th with a throw of 36’9’’, while Russo placed 37th with a throw of 34’4’’

In the girl’s field events, Katie Gallagher dominated for a 2nd place finish in the high jump. Ani Boghossian-James did well in both the high jump and long jump, placing 5th and 19th in the events.  Taylor Biss placed 17th in the triple jump, followed by Sara Hall in 22nd place.

Despite a scattered placement for many of the athletes, Joe Russo is optimistic about the team’s performance. “I think the team performed well in a high-stress environment of competition against some of the best teams around. Some of the best performances were from some of our veterans, and those performances made the younger guys really put forth the effort.

Next week, the Linganore Track and Field team will attend the Gator Invitational. This meet will be their biggest of the year and is one of the most known meets on the East Coast. The meet will be on Saturday, April 29th at Reservoir High School in Columbia, Maryland.